


It doesn't rain but it pours

by lossit_bay



Series: Bang Chan's Clan [6]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: (ง'̀-'́)ง Jisung, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Found Family, Humour, M/M, Magic, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 31,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25365490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lossit_bay/pseuds/lossit_bay
Summary: Chan and Jeongin find Hyunjin in bad shape after a storm and they think his life is about to take a turn for the better when Chan adopts him into their little family. However, Jisung thinks his family is just fine the way it is and makes this opinion very clear.Can Hyunjin and Jisung live together or will the storm raging between them cause the roof to cave in on the haven Chan created?
Series: Bang Chan's Clan [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1400593
Comments: 446
Kudos: 406





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back with the origin fics. This is Hyunjin's (and possibly Seungmin's and Felix's if it goes on that long). At this point Chan has already adopted Jisung, Changbin and Jeongin but the later additions wont feature. Also bedrooms will probably be shifted around again :(
> 
> there is mention of injuries from the beginning

“-and the geography homework is stupid,” Jeongin ranted on. He was mostly just filling the silence as he walked along with Chan. He rarely got Chan’s undivided attention for very long so now, nearing the end of their shopping trip, he was running out of topics. “A group poster- those never go well…” Jeongin trailed off and looked around. People were pushing past him but Chan was no longer beside him. “Chan-hyung!!” he called out, keeping the panic from his voice. _There was no need to panic_. Chan was a vampire with acute hearing and Jeongin had a powerful pair of lungs on him, Chan would hear him and come straight back. Why go searching for his missing hyung if he could just yell?

“I’m right here, In,” Chan called from just a few feet away with an amused smile. Jeongin had missed him in the crowd. 

“Why did you stop?” Jeongin groused. “Were you even listening to me?”

“I was listening,” Chan assured him but he was busy scanning their surroundings. “I smelled the sea. Just give me a minute.”

“Yeah, there’s a seafood shop right there,” Jeongin gestured just up the road. “Come on. I want to go home, Hyung.”

“No. Jeongin, I _smelled_ the _sea.”_ Chan repeated and he pulled Jeongin to the side of the street so they weren’t in everyone’s way.

“You said.” Jeongin was getting grumpy now. He’d enjoyed shopping but his legs were tired and his patience was wearing thin.

“ _Blood,”_ Chan hissed in his ear. “Blood from a person from the sea.”

 _Oooh. That kind of ‘smelling’._ Was Chan going to drink a mermaid? Jeongin was sure that Chan didn’t drink blood of any kind but maybe Chan just drank mermaids and they were hard to find up here in Seoul. Jeongin’s mum was going to be really mad if she found out Chan liked sea blood. That was practically his entire family. It was a good thing Jeongin had rejected marine shifting or he might have one day discovered Chan was a lot less friendly.

“This way,” Chan said, pulling Jeongin down an alley. Jeongin really didn’t want to witness a murder but he was kind of in a tough spot with Chan being his guardian and all so he let himself be dragged along.

Chan pulled him further down the alley as it dipped down towards the middle and the general filth of society piled up the further they went. Jeongin held his shopping bags close to his chest, glad he hadn’t given in to the urge to put his new shoes on in the shop after they bought them. They would have been ruined now in the muddy water that was seeping into his socks from an overflowing drain. 

“Channie-hy-” Jeongin’s complaint died in his throat as the next pile of rubbish turned out to be a boy about his age, curled up and whimpering, one arm tucked into his chest and the other braced in front of his face. Chan knelt down in the dirty water in front of the boy and waved his hand slowly in front of the boy’s face to catch his attention. 

“Hey,” Chan said gently. “Can you hear me?”

This wasn’t a murder. It was a rescue. _Of course._

The boy slowly lifted his head. His eyes were blown wide with fear and a cut sliced across the bridge of his nose. His hands were also battered and his hair was soaked and matted. Terra, what had happened to him?

“I’m Chan,” Chan was telling the boy. “Are you hurt? Can I help you?”

“My arm,” the boy whispered. “My arm.”

“This one?” Chan asked, indicating the one the boy was cradling to his chest. The boy nodded. “Can I look?” Chan said. “Where does it hurt?”

“In the middle,” the boy said. “I can’t move my fingers. I can’t move it.”

“I’ll be really careful,” Chan promised and waited for the boy to nod before he put a hand under the boy’s elbow and another around his upper arm and carefully moved it. The boy bit off a scream as his whole face tensed in pain.

“It’s probably broken,” Chan said. “I’m going to rip your sleeve, ok?” he told the boy. Jeongin didn’t think that the boy heard him. “Talk to him, Innie,” Chan ordered him. “He needs distraction.”

“What?” Jeongin squawked. He didn’t sign up for this. “Uhhhhhh, hi.” he started. That was dumb. “My name is Jeongin. Do you have a name?” That was dumber. Someone end him right this second.

“Hyunjin,” the boy whispered as Chan felt along his arm. “I’m Hyunjin.”

“Hyunjin!” Jeongin exclaimed as he panicked about his new responsibility. “That’s great!” What was he supposed to ask now? “How did you get hurt?”

“You’re doing great,” Chan said. It was probably directed at Hyunjin, who had managed not to scream yet, rather than at Jeongin, who was forgetting how conversations worked.

“The rain hit me,” Hyunjin grunted, presumably to Jeongin. Chan had taken off his own shirt and was now ripping it up for a bandage or a sling or something. Jeongin hoped Chan’s insane muscle definition wouldn’t scare Hyunjin more. If he was scared of rain then biceps like Chan’s so close to his face were bound to make him panic. Strangely, Hyunjin seemed puzzled more than anything by the gun show. 

“Ok, we’re going to need to get you to hospital,” Chan told Hyunjin as he deftly made a sling around Hyunjin’s arm with his shirt. “Can you stand?”

“Umm,” Hyunjin said, either he was in too much pain to make that call or he was stalling. “You should just leave me,” he decided eventually, gasping the words through his pain. “I’m fine.”

 _Now you’ve done it,_ Jeongin thought. If you challenged Chan’s attempts to mother (smother) you he only doubled down.

“We’re not leaving you like this,” Chan said. “If you can’t stand I can carry you.”

“It’s-” Hyunjin cut off his explanation and breathed out hard through another wave of pain as he accidentally clenched his fist. 

“Take it easy, Hyunjin,” Chan soothed him. “The sooner we can get you to a medic, the sooner you can get painkillers and someone can set your arm.”

“I can’t,” Hyunjin said. “I’ll be fine.”

“Is it because you’re not human?” Chan asked suddenly. Jeongin had entirely forgotten that’s why they were here. Hyunjin _looked_ human. But then again so did he and so did Jisung and even Changbin mostly passed, though he was a bit on the short side.

Hyunjin’s head shot up. “How do you know?”

“We’re not human either,” Chan assured him. “I can take you to a mystic doctor.”

“A what doctor?” Hyunjin asked. He looked like he was going to cry. Jeongin didn’t blame him. He would have started crying a long time ago.

“A mystic doctor,” Chan said. “People who aren’t human are mystics. I’m a vampire and Jeonginnie here is a shifter.”

“Vampires are _real?”_ Hyunjin whimpered and tried to back himself further against the wall. Poor kid. He had a lot of learning to do.

“Channie-hyung doesn’t drink blood,” Jeongin told Hyunjin who would probably be running by now if he had the capabilities. “He’s not going to bite you.”

“No, definitely not,” Chan said, waving his hands in front of him. “I hate the taste of blood.”

Hyunjin looked doubtful. He turned to Jeongin. “You’re not a vampire?” Hyunjin asked Jeongin shyly.

“Ah, no. I’m a shifter,” Jeongin repeated Chan’s words from before. Hyunjin probably didn’t know what that meant though. “I can turn into a fox, and some other animals.”

Understanding lit up Hyunjin’s eyes. “Oh!” He stretched out one of his legs from where it was tucked under him and.. _oh._ That was not a leg. Or at least, not a human one.

“Huh,” Chan said. “Well, that one’s new.”

“I can turn my legs human or octopus,” Hyunjin said shyly. “But they’re stuck like this now because I’m scared.”

“Do you have two or eight?” Jeongin asked before his brain to mouth filter could stop him.

Hyunjin laughed melodically. “Eight. Right now I have eight. When I’m human I have two.”

“That’s good,” Jeongin said. “Eight human legs would look really weird.”

“Yeah,” Hyunjin agreed. “Walking would be a nightmare.”


	2. Chapter 2

Chan called in a favour from a friend with a car and they managed to get Hyunjin to the mystic sector of the hospital. Chan was given a lot of paperwork to fill out when the discovered that Hyunjin was undocumented but thankfully the doctors decided to treat Hyunjin first and ask questions later. Hyunjin had quietly asked Jeongin to stay with him so while Hyunjin was poked and prodded Jeongin trailed after him.

Hyunjin had a broken arm, as expected, but he also had two fractured ribs and a really deep cut on one of his… tentacles? that he hadn’t told them about. The benefit of going to the mystic sector of the hospital was that, though it often took longer to get seen, most injuries could be healed in a few seconds by a witch. Hyunjin’s arm and ribs were put back to normal easily enough but the witch hesitated when she got to his injured tentacle.

“I’m sorry,” she said apologetically. “I’m not really sure how… octopuses? work. Can you shift back? I can heal it when you’re human.”

Hyunjin shook his head. “I don’t know how,” he mumbled, clutching Jeongin’s hand tight. He’d almost been chatty with Jeongin in the car but since they got the hospital he’d shrunk into himself and avoided everyone’s gaze.

“Can you come back in ten minutes?” Jeongin asked her. “We have to stay anyway while my guardian sorts out his registration.”

“Sure,” the witch agreed quickly. She seemed glad to be given an out and left the room quickly.

Jeongin turned to Hyunjin. Hyunjin had been changed out of his soaking wet clothes into a hospital gown and he was staring at his lap, picking at the fabric. All his tentacles were tucked under the gown but Jeongin could see the darkening patch of blood on his left side when the injured tentacle was hiding. The blood wasn’t quite a normal red but it was difficult to tell on the patterned gown and Jeongin hadn’t got a good look earlier. He thought it might be purple because the cut on Hyunjin’s nose hadn’t been bright enough to be red either.

“Hyunjin,” Jeongin started. “Can you not shift?”

“I can,” Hyunjin mumbled. “Just not now. There’s too many people and I can’t concentrate.”

“Nobody else is going to come into this room for a while, unless it’s Channie-hyung,” Jeongin said soothingly. “And you trust Channie-hyung, right?”

Hyunjin nodded and lifted up the edge of his gown to look at his cut tentacle. It didn’t look good, with puckered edges and slowly weeping blood as if it had been cut for a while.

“Octopuses can grow their tentacles back,” Jeongin told him. His uncle had once exploited that fact when he lost a finger in a work accident but it meant he’d had to stay as an octopus for weeks.

“Back from where?” Hyunjin asked.

“Back. If you chop one off an octopus can grow it back,” Jeongin explained patiently. It seemed like Hyunjin wasn’t very bright but that might just be the stress of… whatever he’d gone through.

“Oh,” Hyunjin said and used the tip of one tentacle to poke at his cut. He hissed as he did it and the tips off all his tentacles curled in on themselves like tiny fists. “I don’t know if I can grow back.”

“We probably shouldn’t test that,” Jeongin said.

“Probably not,” Hyunjin agreed.

“Do you think you could shift if I shift too?” Jeongin asked. He really would rather not do it right here but he was pretty comfortable in his fox form and it looked like Hyunjin needed the support.

“Can you shift into anything?” Hyunjin asked excitedly. “Can you do a dog?”

“Not everything,” Jeongin told him. “Just the ones I’ve practiced. I can do a fox now though? That’s a bit like a dog.” 

“Yes! Do a fox,” Hyunjin said. “That would be really cute.”

“I am _not_ cute,” Jeongin grumbled as he kicked off his socks and shoes to get ready to shift. His fox form took very little concentration or effort but it would be best not to get tangled up in his own clothes as a first impression. Thankfully, the shift went smoothly and Jeongin kept his head enough to calmly back out of his t-shirt and knock his boxers off of his tail.

Hyunjin gasped. “Your _ears!”_ Jeongin flattened them back against his skull. Hyunjin was very loud but thankfully seemed to know some animal etiquette because he held out his closed fist for Jeongin to sniff before petting him. Hyunjin needed a shower. In chlorine or bleach or something. Jeongin wrinkled his nose and backed away down Hyunjin’s hospital bed.

“I smell bad?” Hyunjin said dejectedly. “Sorry. The rain overflowed the sewers last night and I couldn’t stay in the nice part.”

Did he say _sewers?_ Jeongin wasn’t aware sewers had _nice_ parts but that explained the smell at least. Honestly, for a sewer it was actually not bad. Ignoring his many instincts to not be near Hyunjin or the hospital at all for that matter, Jeongin slowly crept back up the bed.

Hyunjin hesitantly reached for his ears. “You’re so soft,” he whispered reverently. “You’re the cutest thing I have ever seen- I want to eat you.” Ok, that was taking it a bit far. Jeongin bared his sharp teeth to show his displeasure. It did not have the effect he wanted. “Awww, such tiny teeth.” Hyunjin was nearly as bad as Changbin for self-preservation as he took that as a sign to bring his fingers closer to Jeongin’s face. Jeongin, reluctantly, decided not to bite him.

“Shift your legs,” Jeongin told him instead. Hyunjin only imitated the bark so it was safe to assume he didn’t understand. That was just brilliant. “Shift. Your. Legs!” Jeongin repeated, nudging Hyunjin’s tentacles. Hyunjin just intercepted him with more scratches. It was nice but not really the objective here. He’d have to shift back to get this idiot to understand. Urgh, this boy was so annoying.

Jeongin jumped back to the floor with his clothes and shifted back, crouching until he had his boxers back on before quickly dressing fully. “You have to shift now too,” he told Hyunjin.

“You should have stayed as a fox for longer, “ Hyunjin said, ignoring him. “You were so cute.”

“You smelled,” Jeongin replied. “Shift your legs and then you can get healed.”

“I can’t do it as easily as that,” Hyunjin said self-consciously. “I only shift in the dark.”

“We can do that,” Jeongin said instead of the scathing remark he would have given Changbin or Jisung if they’d said something that pathetic. He jumped up and turned off the light so they were only lit by the window and then ran across the room to wrestle with the blinds. “There!” he said proudly when he won his fight. “Dark!”

Well, it was mostly dark. There was still the glow of the emergency exit sign and the crack in the blinds that Jeongin _definitely_ hadn’t broken.

“Oh,” Hyunjin said in surprise. “Thank you.”

“So you’re going to shift now?” Jeongin asked. He really wanted Hyunjin to get his leg healed because a cut that deep could not be good.

“I’ll try,” Hyunjin said and sighed shakily. His shift was near silent and Jeongin wouldn’t have noticed had he not been paying careful attention.

“You ok?” he asked Hyunjin, hovering by his arm.

“Yup,” Hyunjin said but it was high pitched in a way that meant it was anything but.

“I’ll get the nurse,” Jeongin said and dashed out the room. 

The nurse witch had no problem healing Hyunjin once his legs were human but they still weren’t allowed to leave. Hyunjin didn’t have a tag. Jeongin wasn’t sure he even had a surname.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This feels like a weird place to stop but you've already gotten well over my usual 1k word count and I only have enough for one more chapter written up


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is just going to give you more questions but enjoy

“Hey!” Chan said, coming into the room instead of the scary Council worker Jeongin expected. He knew there was normally at least one hanging about a hospital. “Are you feeling better Hyunjinnie?” Chan had acquired a t-shirt from somewhere and it falsely labelled him as the cleaning crew.

“Uh, yes.” Hyunjin said. “Thank you.”

“I’ve not done anything yet,” Chan laughed. He pulled up the bedside chair and clicked the pen in his hand. “I’ve got to ask you some questions to get you registered, ok? We have a separate government and they need a record. It can be matched to a human one too, if you have one, so ages and stuff don’t look weird on the human system.”

“A human what?” Hyunjin asked.

“Record,” Chan explained. “Have you been to a human hospital before? Or school or anything?”

Hyunjin shook his head. “I only stayed with Auntie and Uncle, before they died. Auntie taught me school at home because I was different.”

“That’s ok,” Chan said casually while alarm bells were ringing in Jeongin’s head. Had Hyunin even been outside before? “I’ve just got a few questions I couldn’t answer for you,” Chan continued. “Don’t worry if you don’t have an answer, we can make something up or guess.”

“Ok,” Hyunjin replied with a small nod.

“First thing- Do you have a surname?”

“Hwang,” Hyunjin said. “Uncle’s name was Hwang.”

“Excellent. Do you know your birth date? Or how old you are?”

“Uncle found me on the 20th of March. It’s not a birthday but we celebrated my found day,” Hyunjin offered. Jeongin was not liking the picture he was getting from these fractions of information.

“Age? Year of birth?” Chan asked. He’d put Hyunjin’s found day down as his birthday.

“Don’t know,” Hyunjin said quietly.

“That’s fine,” Chan said. “Innie is 2001 and you look to be about his age so we could use that, at least for now. Or if you want to be older than him, 2000. I have another kid that age.”

“Say 2001,” Jeongin said quickly. “My birthday is in February.”

“2000,” Hyunjin told Chan with a grin. “It’s a nicer number.”

“2000,” Chan echoed as he wrote it down.

“Why?” Jeongin moaned. “We could have been age-mates.”

“But now I’m your Hyung,” Hyunjin said proudly.

“I’ve got enough of them already,” Jeongin groused.

They went through the last of Chan’s questions and then Chan had to get Hyunjin’s signature. Chan flipped to the final page. “Ok, now this isn’t registration. Where do you want to go now, Hyunjinnie? Do you have somewhere to stay?”

Hyunjin looked out the window. “I can find somewhere.” Like the alley they found him in? Jeongin wasn’t ok with that. Thankfully, neither was Chan.

“You can stay with us if you want,” Chan offered. “Temporarily or permanently. Or you could stay with the Council and they’ll teach you in a mystic school and train you up to be like a police officer. That’s what I did.”

“Don’t do that,” Jeongin advised Hyunjin. “The Council are bastards, especially to shifters. Stay with us.”

“Ok,” Hyunjin agreed easily.

“Perfect!” Chan grinned. “In which case I’ll be your guardian which means it’s my job to make sure you’re ok and any humans don’t find out you’re a shifter. I’m Innie’s guardian too and there are two other boys. Jisung is the boy I was telling you about- born in 2000. He’s a witch. And Changbinnie is a dwarf and they count ages a bit different but he’s just a little bit older than you.”

“A witch and a dwarf,” Hyunjin echoed under his breath. “Is a dwarf..” Hyunjin held his hand a little way off the bed, about mid-chest height. Jeongin cackled.

“No, Changbinnie-hyung is short but not that short. He’s about here.” Jeongin held his hand around 5 feet of the ground. “He looks like a normal human otherwise. And Jisungie-hyung is normal looking too. He has magic but he can’t really use it very well because he’s not got a lot and when he runs out he faints.”

Hyunjin’s eyes widened. “That sounds scary.”

“He’s getting a lot better at it,” Chan assured him. “He only found out he was a witch a couple years ago and he can already do some charms.”

“I guess that’s good,” Hyunjin said hesitantly.

“Sorry, we should focus on getting you home,” Chan said. “If you sign this sheet I can legally be your guardian and then as soon as we have a tag for you and some clothes we can get going. You look like you could use a shower.”

“Yes please,” Hyunjin said eagerly as he leant over to sign his name. “I love showers, almost as good as baths.”

“We don’t have a bath I’m afraid,” Chan said. “But if you need one for shifting I’m sure we can find a big tub somewhere.”

“Oh no, it’s ok,” Hyunjin waved his hands. “A shower is great. I’ve been in the sewers. A shower is _great.”_

“You poor kid,” Chan said, his eye brows pulling together in pity. “I’ll be right back.”

“What’s a tag?” Hyunjin asked when Chan had left the room.

“Oh.” Jeongin pulled the chain out from under his t-shirt. “This is a tag. Shifters have to wear one so we can be identified in any form.”

“Identified? But I look the same.”

Jeongin shrugged. “Most of us don’t. When I’m older I should be able to change my face at will. I’ve never had to use my tag but you can use it to get new ID if you move without bringing any. So like if you swam to Busan you could go to the bank and they would give you a new birth certificate and credit card and stuff.”

“I don’t have a birth certificate.” Hyunjin was missing the point a bit but Jeongin felt sorry for him so patiently explained.

“They’ll make one. With the information Channie-hyung gave them. And they can make fake ones when your appearance doesn’t match your age anymore. Channie-hyung is like over two hundred years old but his ID says he’s twenty-one. You get new ones every few years when you stop ageing.”

“That's… useful,” Hyunjin settled on. Jeongin should really stop telling him so much all at once. He was going to overwhelm him and Chan would tell him off.

“Right!” Chan said, appearing again and making Hyunjin jump. “Ah, sorry, Hyunjinnie. This is your shiny new tag.” He handed over one a little smaller than Jeongin’s. It must be a newer model. “Wear that, don’t take it off unless you’re in my house. And they only had a kind of gross looking t-shirt and ripped shorts _but!_ I took Jeongin shopping today so you can borrow his clothes. He even has shoes!”

Jeongin frowned at that. They were _his_ clothes and they were _new._ Hyunjin was grubby with Terra knows what and Jeongin didn’t think that would come off in the wash. Chan must have seen his internal conflict because he raised one eyebrow in a way that said ‘ _are you really going to deny this poor boy clothes when he has nothing?’_ He had a point.

Hyunjin got dressed in the odd mix of clothes Chan had bought Jeongin and they headed home. That was where the real trouble started.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you're about to get some sneaky backstory~

“Who’s he?” Jisung asked immediately when Hyunjin was brought upstairs. The witch had pulled himself to his full height and was tensed and on edge. Jeongin had forgotten what that had been like. At one point Jisung had been hostile to him too but now Jeongin had to actively push away his affection. Hopefully, he’d warm to Hyunjin quickly.

“My name is Hyunjin,” Hyunjin said quietly and bowed. He was bound to be nervous too but he hadn’t shifted back which was just as well because Jeongin’s new jeans were on the line and he really liked them. Maybe they weren’t his jeans anymore actually. He’d need to find a way to ask Chan without sounding like a dick. Hyunjin was taller than the other members of the household so if he was borrowing anybody's trousers it would be Jeongin’s. Jeongin would have to look out his old sweatpants for him to avoid losing more trousers he liked.

“Hyunjin will be staying with us now, Sung,” Chan explained lightly.

“Why?” Jisung asked with hostility, crossing his arms. He was blocking the routes through to the bedrooms and the living room.

“He has no home,” Chan explained, purposely setting things down on the table in such a way that Jisung had to take a step back. “And he was unaware of the mystic community _like you were.”_

 _Oooh._ Jeongin was glad he wasn’t Jisung right now. Chan’s tone said Jisung was getting it as soon as Hyunjin was out of hearing distance. Jisung ignored the warning.

“What are you then?” he asked Hyunjin, looking him up and down.

“Umm.” Hyunjin turned to Jeongin for help.

“He’s a shifter,” Jeongin explained. “Half octopus, we think.”

“Which half?” Jisung asked, despite Hyunjin clearly being uncomfortable.

“ _Jisung,”_ Chan scolded.

“It’s a valid question!” Jisung protested.

“It’s fine,” Hyunjin said quietly. “My legs turn into tentacles. And I get slits here,” Hyunjin ran his fingers along a rib bone under his armpit. “I think that’s how I breathe in the water.”

“Hmm.” Jisung tried to seem unimpressed but Jeongin could tell he was desperate to ask more questions and was holding himself back just to make Hyunjin feel unwelcome. “I’m a witch,” Jisung announced. With a quick word in Fae he lit a tiny blue flame in his palm and smirked at Hyunjin before extinguishing it again. Jeongin knew he couldn’t maintain that spell much longer than he did without exhausting himself but Hyunjin’s grip on Jeongin’s arm tightened slightly.

“Bin’s still out?” Chan asked. Jisung nodded, continuing to glare at Hyunjin. “Have you cleaned the kitchen yet?” Chan continued.

“No,” Jisung admitted grudgingly.

“Can you do that now then?” Chan asked but it wasn’t a question. He stepped aside and Jisung reluctantly stomped through to the kitchen.

“Sorry about him,” Chan apologised to Hyunjin. “He’s not a fan of new faces.”

“He didn’t like me either,” Jeongin added.

“Neither he did,” Chan muttered to himself as if he’d only just realised the repercussions of bringing Hyunjin home. “Anyway. Hyunjin, I’ll order a bed for you and you can share a room with Innie. I’ll show you around now while Innie makes some space.”

Jeongin wasn’t too happy about getting a roommate without being consulted but Hyunjin had taken a liking to him and he was a shifter like Jeongin, but also not like Jeongin, and shifters had to stick together. Jeongin’s bed was currently pushed against the wall with the window and a chest of drawers against one of the side walls held his clothes. Then there was the designated dumping ground for his school stuff. Books for any subject he didn’t have that day were abandoned in a pile to lighten his load and his gym bag was around there somewhere as well on a good day. On a bad day it could be anywhere between the back door, his room, and the washing machine.

A large amount of his small space was taken up by two yoga mats side by side in the middle of the room. In the evenings his room got some light before the sun went behind the building next to them and he used the time to practice grounding his mind in his body. He’d been too good at this once, unable to take on another form, but now he had multiple forms he was scared of forgetting which one to return to. Really, he was scared of forgetting he _had_ another body to return to. In theory, he was too young to get permanently stuck in a foreign form but he’d had a late start in learning to shift and it would be just his luck to be early to hold an unconscious shift as well. Being a fox forever might be ok but if he got stuck as something dumb like a hare that would be the end of Yang Jeongin.

There wouldn’t be space for his yoga mats if Hyunjin was in here too so he knelt to roll them up. He’d just have to sit on his bed to do it or something. The room looked kind of empty without them but that would soon change. Chan knocked twice and stuck his head around the door before Jeongin could grant him entry.

“Ah, you rolled up your mats,” Chan said. “I had a thought- Hyunjin can probably take my bed for the first couple of days until I can get a new bed delivered for him and I’ll take the couch if I need to.”

“So I can put my mats back?” Jeongin asked. He was going to take every last second of personal space he could get since apparently it was being unfairly ripped away from him.

“Yeah, for now,” Chan allowed. “You’ve got at least one more night in here alone.” Jeongin let out a sigh of relief and let the mats in his hands unfurl as tension he didn’t even know he was feeling left. Chan noticed and winced. “I’m sorry, Innie. I don’t mean to put so much of this on you. It’s just that Hyunjin is already so attached to you and-”

“And we’re both shifters,” Jeongin finished for him before Chan could work himself into a bigger worry trying to please everyone. “It’s fine. But if he cries you have to deal with that. I don’t know how to fix crying people.”

Chan smiled at that. “Hug them and say nice things,” he suggested. “But yes, I will come and deal with any meltdowns if you call me.”

“Ok.” Jeongin calmed his racing thoughts. “He better not snore.”

“Innie, you sleep through anything,” Chan pointed out.

“I have to in this house!” Jeongin exclaimed. “You and Binnie-hyung had a screaming match last week, on a school night!”

“But you said you didn’t hear us?” Chan said in confusion. He hadn’t but Jisung had recorded it and showed him the next day after school. How nobody called the police on them he had no idea.

“Not the point!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> poor innie :(


	5. Chapter 5

The meltdown came sooner than expected, and it was quieter than expected too. Chan had left Hyunjin in his room just down the hall but when they went to collect him for dinner he was nowhere to be seen.

“Hyunjin!” Chan called loudly in the hallway. There was no reply so they went on a search. Jeongin hoped he hadn’t robbed them and left. Stealing Chan’s shit was fine but Jeongin didn’t want to lose his new trainers to a thief. Convincing Chan to get the more expensive ones had been easy but they didn’t really have the money for Jeongin to pull that kind of stunt again.

Chan swung open the door to Changbin and Jisung’s room. It was a mess as usual, especially Jisung’s side. Changbin’s bed was hastily made from that morning but Jisung’s single duvet was turned sideways to wrap around his huddled form while the AC blasted. The corner of his duvet was dangerously close to knocking a glass of water off the bedside table but Jisung had so many clothes on the floor at his side that the glass was in no danger of breaking and the water would be quickly absorbed if that happened. It made Jeongin feel better about the state of his own bedroom.

“Sung, have you seen Hyunjin?” Chan asked.

Jisung took off his headphones and waited for Chan to repeat the question, face blank. He was still in a mood about earlier. Once he heard that Chan hadn’t come to apologize and was once again prioritising the new boy he pulled his headphones again and turned over to face the wall.

“Jisung!” Chan said exasperatedly, probably not loud enough to be heard over Jisung’s music. He was ignored and he clenched his fists at Jisung’s back before calming down and gently pushing Jeongin out of the room to search elsewhere. Joengin trailed after him to the bathroom, the living room, dining room.

“The door is open,” Jeongin noted as they passed the top of the stairs. He could feel the draft of it and the faint sound of the rain hitting the paving slabs outside

“The rain!” Chan exclaimed and dashed down the stairs, Jeongin on his heels.

Hyunjin was sitting in the doorway, just far back enough for the water not to hit him. Or perhaps he wasn’t sitting. His legs were gone again, tentacles now twisted around himself. Jeongin’s new jeans hadn’t survived the shift.

“Hyunjin?” Chan asked quietly. “Are you ok?”

“I have to watch it,” Hyunjin replied, barely above a whisper.

“You don’t,” Chan told him. “You can come inside. It’s safe.”

“It’s not,” Hyunjin said, still not looking at them, eyes trained on the water pouring down. “I have to watch it.”

“It’s making you stressed, Hyunjinnie,” Chan tried. “Why don’t you come inside for dinner and forget it’s raining.”

“I CAN’T FORGET!” Hyunjin screamed, jerking away as Chan put a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll kill me.”

“Ok.” Chan crouched by Hyunjin’s side, unphased by the admission. “Do you want to stay sitting here until the rain stops?” he asked. “It will be nicer if you’re inside and you could look out the window instead? There’s a window next to our couch- you could sit there to watch the rain?”

Hyunjin shook his head. “I need to see the ground,” he said quietly. “In case it…”

“In case it floods?” Chan guessed. “Ok, Well I’ll-”

Chan's suggestion was cut off by Changbin running around the corner with his jacket over his head. He stumbled over Hyunjin into the house and wiped the rain from his face, breathing heavily.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Changbin gasped. “And for nearly standing on you, dude.” He aimed the second statement at Hyunjin

“It’s ok.” Hyunjin replied in a monotone. Changbin turned to Jeongin with a puzzled expression as Chan tried to dry his fringe with his sleeve.

“Chan-hyung adopted him,” Jeongin explained briefly, guessing Hyunjin wasn’t in the position to introduce himself. “He’s scared of rain.”

“Ah,” Changbin said, eyebrows shooting up as he took in that information and all the things Jeongin hadn’t said. He brushed off Chan’s fussing and sat down next to Hyunjin, right in the puddle from his shoes. “Hi, I’m Changbin. I’m a dwarf. My favourite colour is yellow. What about you?”

“I’m Hyunjin,” Hyunjin mumbled,” briefly glancing his way. “I don’t have normal legs. My favourite colour is green.”

“Awesome!” Changbin said cheerfully. “Can I sit with you?”

“If you want,” Hyunjin replied. Changbin had already softened some of his hostility and he sounded more confused than anything that Changbin was willing to sit with him. “It’s cold- wouldn’t you rather be inside?”

“I used to live in the mountains,” Changbin offered. “I like cold weather but Channie-hyung can get us a blanket?”

“Yes!” Chan agreed, relief colouring his voice. “I’ll get that. And I can bring down your dinner when it’s ready.” He ran off. Jeongin panicked for half a second before running after him.

He was too slow and Chan whirled past him on the stairs with Changbin’s black duvet. Chasing Chan again would be pointless so he went to Changbin and Jisung’s room because if there was one person enjoying this change less than him, it was Jisung.

Jisung was staring warily at his door when Jeongin walked in. “He found the weird kid?” Jisung asked.

“Hyunjin. Hyung,” Jeongin corrected Jisung and then himself. “Yeah. He’s at the back door, staring at the rain.”

Jisung pulled a face. “Why?”

Jeongin shrugged though he had a pretty good idea what the answer was. He unfolded a corner of Jisung’s burrito and crawled in next to him. “Binnie-hyung is staying with him until the rain stops.”

“It’s just going to start raining again,” Jisung pointed out. It's the rainy season.”

“Yeah.” Jeongin had thought of that. Hyunjin was going to be spending a lot of time staring out the back door.

Jisung typed ‘tsunami’ into the search bar of youtube.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unrelated, but i am doing a live writing thing where I share my word document as I write in a hour (midnight BST 25/07) since some people were interested in how I make words happen. 
> 
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/12wkzBcebI8qzDVaa-nlg9XmZfauvN264qtzX2AeU17g/edit?usp=sharing 
> 
> its here if you're interested. you can just come stare at my typos or comment if you'd like. if people like it i might do it again


	6. Chapter 6

Jeongin didn't see Hyunjin again before he left for school the next morning. He could pretend it was because he slept early and woke early but in all honesty he'd been avoiding the other shifter boy. He was afraid that if he was too nice to Hyunjin he'd accidentally sign up to deal with all his problems and that wasn't something he felt prepared for. Chan and Changbin could comfort Hyunjin for now and Jeongin would hang out with Jisung or be very busy with schoolwork.

It seemed like a good plan but plans were unstable concepts in their household so Jeongin was cautious when he opened the door to the shop after school. It had rained around lunchtime but that had been hours ago so things _should_ be calm now.

Changbin was sitting behind the counter and had to shake his hair out of his eyes before he could see who it was. "Innie! How was school?"

"Fine," Jeongin said, letting the door swing shut behind him. He crossed the room to hop up onto the counter next to Changbin. "How was it here?"

Changbin rolled his eyes. "Jisung is being a brat but Channie-hyung won't tell him off for it in case it spikes his magic. Oh, and Hyung might ask for your help with school grades. Hyunjin was home-schooled to what sounds like quite a high level by his Aunt but me and Sung both have the DCPT so we don't really know what human education is like now past what Sung did before. And Sung wasn't being too helpful."

"I bet," Jeongin said. "Hyunjin can look at my textbooks but to be honest I don't really understand all of it."

"Channie-hyung will work it out," Changbin said confidently.

"Where is everyone?" Jeongin asked before he went through the back. Jisung was the only one that wouldn't ask him a load of questions and he wanted a little down time before he entered the minefield of emotions again.

Changbin shrugged. "I've been down here all afternoon." A wise choice but Jeongin wanted to change out of his school uniform so he was going to have to risk it.

It was pointless trying to sneak in a vampire's house so Jeongin just took the stairs as normal and prayed nobody would be in the dining room so he could slip across the corridor into his room before he was intercepted. Luck was not on his side. Chan was sitting with Hyunjin at the table, Chan with his laptop and Hyunjin with a notebook. Hyunjin startled as Jeongin appeared but relaxed quickly when he realised who it was.

"Hello Jeongin."

"Hi," Jeongin said briefly, not stopping in his bid for his room.

"In?" Chan said just as he got his hand on the door handle. "Can you come back here with your school bag once you've changed?"

Jeongin fought the urge to sigh. So much for his down time. "Yeah," he agreed without turning around and beelined for his room.

There was a large box propped against the wall where he usually threw his school bag. One glance confirmed it was a bed identical to his own, flat packed. Thankfully, as of yet there was no mattress with it. Jeongin slung his bag across the floor and pulled his blazer off, dumping it onto his bed. He didn't want to continue taking off his clothes any more because as soon as he was redressed he would have to go out and face Chan and Hyunjin again.

It didn't make sense for him to be feeling this way. He loved Chan, loved getting to spend time with him, and Hyunjin was very friendly and a shifter like him, they had the potential to be good friends. Perhaps it was the lack of choice. He was starting to understand why Jisung had been so opposed to him when he first arrived. It wasn't that Hyunjin was a bad person, it was that he was going to be Jeongin's new roommate, potentially for _years,_ and Jeongin hadn't even had a day to process it, let alone agree to it. Still, there wasn't a better opinion. He'd adjusted to big life changes before, when he moved school and then moved in with Chan, he could manage again.

"You look cute," Hyunjin announced when Jeongin joined them at the table. Jeongin glanced down at his dungarees. He'd chosen to wear them because they took the longest to put on but he supposed it was a more childish outfit.

"I guess." He took a seat opposite them.

"You do!" Hyunjin continued. "Your face is cute and your clothes are cute."

Jeongin didn't know what to say to that. The others called him cute too but it was normally said with more teasing. Hyunjin was so… forward. He looked to Chan for help.

"You do look cute, Innie," Chan agreed. "I've not seen those dungarees in a while."

"Can't shift in them," Jeongin mumbled. With his hoodie tucked in the neck hole was the only place he could crawl out of and in the post-shift panic that was impossible to find. Before he could shift that hadn't even crossed his mind but now he picked his clothes with more than just his human form in mind.

"Ah!" Chan said. "I hadn't even considered that. Maybe you can help Hyunjin with that too."

Hyunjin's legs multiplied by four. He didn't need help to work out that the solution was to wear baggy trousers. Or at least, Jeongin sincerely hoped he didn't need help to work that out because there were only so many of his trousers he was willing to donate to the 'Hyunjin is an Idiot Fund'.

Jeongin stared warily at Hyunjin but the other boy just beamed back at him. "Don't borrow any of my clothes without permission," Jeongin said precautionarily.

Hyunjin crossed his heart and held up his hand. "I swear."

Jeongin squinted at him. "Don't do that. You're not a human."

"I'm-" Hyunjin spluttered. "But-"

" _Jeongin,"_ Chan scolded. "Don't be rude. We respect all cultures in this house and that includes adopted cultures."

"Are you not trying to _re-educate_ him?" Jeongin argued. "I'm helping."

"What did I do wrong?" Hyunjin asked quietly.

Chan sighed but crossed his own heart. "That," he explained. "Is not the best thing to do in mixed mystic company. Vampires are dead so some see crossing your heart as bad taste since theirs no longer beats. Also, the whole 'X marks the spot' and staking business," he added.

"I'm so sorry," Hyunjin gushed.

Chan laughed. "No, it doesn't bother me," he assured him. "I was human once, I know what it's like. There's a lot of stuff like that but you'll pick it up quickly. Religion is a main one we've touched on. Terra is the most common deity, spirit of the earth. Even people who don't believe in her will use her name. Luna, spirit of the moon, is worshipped by most werewolves. Dwarves are largely atheist but you'll hear some strange sayings from Changbin every now and again. We don't understand what most of them mean either."

"I believe in God," Hyunjin said quietly. He pulled a cross on a necklace out of his t-shirt. "Is that… ok?"

"Of course!" Chan said far too cheerfully. "Do you want to go to church? Do you need a Bible?"

Hyunjin looked a little overwhelmed. "Uhhh. I can't go to church. Um. People will ask me questions... But I would like a Bible, if that's ok."

Jeongin wondered what 'questions' he thought the churchgoers would ask. But given he had failed at 'how old are you?' the day before perhaps it was best he didn't go someplace he could spill all the mystic secrets. Also, from what Jeongin had seen in films, if Hyunjin panicked and shifted they'd probably try to exorcise him. That wouldn't be too good either.

Chan promised to find Hyunjin a Bible. Apparently, it would be more complicated that Jeongin would have thought as it came in different versions. Chan had connections though and in locating Hyunjin's deceased relatives' final resting place he was going to find their church for the version of Christianity Hyunjin knew. Jeongin thought converting him to Terra would be much faster and easier but he stayed quiet. The sooner they got past that nonsense the sooner they could get onto education and the sooner Jeongin could go back to _his_ room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ive been thinking. i really like this jeongin pov were seeing but it does mean a lot of the hyunsung fights are probably not going to be first hand. are you guys desperate to read it first hand? if so i could maybe do some pov shifts but i do want to try and keep it mostly jeongin


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> half my city was flooded this morning but thankfully we live on a hill so only our water stopped working. i hope everyone is safe, happy and healthy

Hyunjin didn't get to find out what grade he was in that night. Chan had left them to go make dinner and Jeongin was awkwardly trying to explain his maths textbook when there was a low rumble outside. Hyunjin tensed beside him.

“Was that thunder?” Jeongin asked in a whisper. 

“Yes it was,” Jisung said confidently as he strode into the room. He pulled out a seat on Jeongin’s side of the table and sat with his legs spread, one arm hooked over the back of the chair. He was probably trying to be intimidating. Jeongin wasn’t scared at all but the stare Jisung was sending Hyunjin, backed by the sound of more thunder, had the desired effect. “Don’t you have somewhere to be, Weather Boy?” 

“I gotta-” Hyunjin mumbled to Jeongin and rushed to stand and run down the stairs. Jisung stuck out a foot as he passed and Hyunjin tripped on already wobbly legs, flying head-first down the stairs. Jeongin winced and shut his eyes as he braced for impact. He had tripped on those stairs enough times to know there wasn’t a soft landing anywhere.

The hard smack of impact never came, instead it was a sound Jeongin had absolutely no reference for. Perhaps a really intense game of dodgeball mixed with ketchup that’s not quite coming out of the bottle and wads of wet toilet paper thrown at a wall. He was on his feet before he knew it and looked down the stairs. Jisung leant back to balance on the back legs of his chair and peered around him.

“Well that was fun,” Jisung remarked. Hyunjin was at the bottom of the stairs, looking more than a little dazed, tentacles coming out of his shorts where there had been legs seconds before.

“Are you alright?” Jeongin asked.

“ _What_ was that!?” Chan called through from the kitchen.

“It’s fine!” Jisung replied quickly. Another rumble of thunder sounded from close by and Hyunjin slithered to the back door. He bunched his tentacles under himself to reach up for the door handle and yanked it back. The rain hadn’t started yet but the clouds were an ominous steely grey and a flash of lightning lit up the sky. Jeongin managed to count to four before they heard the thunder so the storm was still far off.

Chan appeared behind them. “Hyunjin? Are you alright? What happened?”

“I’m fine,” Hyunjin replied. He seemed calmer now the door was open. “I just tripped. I’m going to watch the rain again.”

Chan frowned. “Jeongin can you get him Bin’s duvet again,” he asked. “And sit with him. At least until dinner.”

Jeongin rolled his eyes but did as he was told. At least it was better than Jisung going, who looked like he was scheming how to trip Hyunjin again without getting caught.

Jeongin draped Changbin’s duvet over Hyunjin and himself as he took a seat. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Hyunjin replied tensely.

“Can you get your legs back?” Jeongin asked him. The skin on his tentacles didn’t look too good but Jeongin couldn’t tell if it was drying out or Hyunjin had just added texture to it, like octopuses did for camouflage.

Hyunjin stretched a couple of the tentacles out in front of them. “Not right now,” he decided eventually. “There’s too much danger.”

“The storm?” Jeongin asked. The thunder and lightning was much closer together now so it must be getting closer and the rain was getting heavier. It probably wouldn’t be as bad as a few days ago was though. That storm had gotten an amber warning. Jeongin looked between Hyunjin, focusing intently on the storm, and the puddle that was starting to form in the same dip in the paving slabs it always did. It was starting to add up. “Hyunjin?”

“Mmm?” Hyunjin answered. 

“You said you lived in the sewers before. Where exactly?”

Hyunjin looked at him for the first time since Jeongin had sat down. It was a few seconds before he answered. “The storm sewer on the main street by where you found me.” He looked back at the rain as a flash of lightning lit up the sky. “There was no sewage, only some water when it rained.”

“And when it rained a couple of nights ago…?” Jeongin asked quietly. He’d already worked it out.

“Then there was a lot of water,” Hyunjin said simply. “A _lot_ of water.”

Jeongin reached over and took his hand. Hyunjin held on tight. The thunder and lightning didn’t seem to scare him at all compared to the puddle but Jeongin supposed when that puddle rose over your head it would get a lot scarier.

“This house never floods,” Jeongin said in comfort. “The street closer to the river would flood first and then we could leave if the water got to close.”

Hyunjin nodded and said nothing. Jeongin remembered what Changbin had done the night before and wondered if he should try and distract Hyunjin instead of adding to his triggers.

“Binnie-hyung said you were good at school. You might be a grade above me.”

“Maybe,” Hyunjin said absently. “Auntie taught me a lot of things.” He was shaking slightly so Jeongin shuffled closer before he continued his questions.

“What subject do you like best? English is ok for me since Channie-hyung is fluent and Jisungie-hyung speaks some. I get accidental practice at home. I don’t really study much.”

“I liked art,” Hyunjin admitted. “Colours and perspectives and stuff. There are a lot of pretty things.”

“Oh.” Jeongin had never really paid enough attention in art to have an answer to that. “I go to a performing arts school,” he offered. “We do extra singing and dancing and playing instruments and acting to a normal school.”

“You sing?” Hyunjin asked excitedly despite all the signs betraying that he was still terrified. “Sing for me.”

“I’m not warmed up,” Jeongin excused. “And I’m not very good. Hyungs are all better than me and they never went to music school.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Hyunjin said, he pulled his tentacles back to his body as a gust of wind blew rain over the threshold and Jeongin reached out to cover more of him with the duvet. 

Jeongin thought hard. He should probably sing something happy. And not about rain. He settled on an old trot song he’d sang along to a million times as a child. It was whimsical and hopefully he could make Hyunjin smile if he did his impression well. His rendition was a little shaky and slower than it should have been but not bad overall. Fit for the purpose of distracting Hyunjin at least.

“That was great!” Hyunjin enthused when he was done. “You have a great singing voice. I don’t know what you were talking about.”

“You don’t know what bad singing sounds like then,” Jeongin retorted. “My high notes were strained.”

“Sing something else then,” Hyunjin demanded, shuffling closer still. One of his tentacles had creeped around Jeongin’s ankle as he sang and another was pressed against his lower back. Jeongin could pretend it was just because they were sharing a duvet but those tentacles hadn’t been there at the start and he would bet more would have migrated towards him by the end of his next song.

“Can I sing _Baby Shark_?” Jeongin asked. “There’s water in that one but it’s not rain.”

“What’s _Baby Shark_?” Hyunjin asked.

“What’s _Baby Shark_?” Jeongin echoed in disbelief. “Right, prepare yourself for an _education.”_


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one person was waiting for this conversation and I think the rest of you are going to wish i didnt bring it up

The rain paused after an hour or so which was just as well because Jeongin’s musical repertoire was nearly depleted. Hyunjin slumped against Jeongin’s shoulder not long after, a dead weight, and nearly tipped them both over.

“Channie-hyung!!” Jeongin called in panic and the vampire appeared, looking flustered.

“Oh, did he fall asleep?” Chan asked, lifting Hyunjin off of him. “He can’t have slept well the last few -oh?”

Hyunjin’s tentacles were still attached to Jeongin’s body as Chan lifted him up. The dark red ropes of muscle were most tightly wrapped around his left leg but also his right leg, left arm and around his middle.

“Yeah,” Jeongin said sassily. “I didn’t call you because I couldn’t push him off.”

“Um,” Chan said, crouching back down with Hyunjin in his arms. “Is he holding you tightly?”

Jeongin reached for the thick part of Hyunjin’s tentacle by his left elbow and tugged. It didn’t come free, just as he had suspected. “Just a little bit.”

“Oh boy,” Chan said. “I was not trained for this.”

They had to call in Changbin for help because Hyunjin slept even more deeply than Jeongin did and held him tighter when they tried to pull him off.

“Oh fuck,” Jeongin cursed as he managed to unwrap the end of one tentacle off his foot only to find it had reattached to his hand as he focused on the next bit. Now all four of his limbs were impared. He was starting to get cramp as well from sitting for so long and there was no way he could move. “We need to wake him up.”

“The rain started again though,” Changbin pointed out. It wasn’t as heavy but Jeongin had seen how much it scared Hyunjin and he couldn’t justify subjecting Hyunjin to that again just to stretch.

“What if I shift?” Jeongin suggested.

“What if he strangles you?” Chan countered. Hyunjin was _strong_ , even in his sleep, and his tentacles were everywhere. They wrapped over his dungarees but also around his bare arms and had migrated up the legs of his dungarees to stick to the skin of his calves. One had gone down this arm hole of his t-shirt and latched onto his back and another had started like a belt but the tip and wormed between his dungarees and t-shirt to tickle his side. If Jeongin got smaller who knows what they’d end up tightening around.

They gave up on that idea and tried transferring Hyunjin’s tentacles one at a time to Chan, who would be strong enough to pull him off again once Jeongin was free. Unfortunately, Hyunjin seemed to recognise who he was attached to and invarable stuck back to Jeongin. He could also do this fun thing where he changed the thickness of his tentacles so if they got one detached it would slip straight through their fingers and find Jeongin’s skin again. Jeongin was quickly covered in circular welts.

“Channie-hyung! Dinner is burning!” Jisung called down from upstairs just as Jeongin thought they were winning.

“Fuck,” Chan muttered, looking around for a way for him to get up. “Bin, come hold him.” He carefully moved Hyunjin’s head to Changbin’s lap where he continued to sleep peacefully and dashed up the stairs.

“I’m going to piss myself if he doesn’t let go soon,” Jeongin told Changbin cheerily. Changbin softly brushed Hyunjin’s hair from his face. He didn’t seem to get the urgency of the situation. “Hyung, I will pee all over the floor if you don’t get him off me,” Jeongin tried again.

“No you won’t,” Changbin said confidently. “You have too much self-respect.”

“Self-respect is not going to save me if Hyunjin starts squeezing me any tighter,” Jeongin muttered, tickling the tentacle on his waist so he could at least relocate it to his leg. It worked, surprisingly, but he was still no closer to being freed.

“What the fuck is going on?” Jisung asked from the top of the stairs.

“Hyunjin is asleep,” Jeongin said wearily. “He’s sticky.”

“Seriously?” Jisung asked, cautiously padding down the stairs in his fluffy socks. “I can wake him up?” he offered eagerly.

Changbin hunched over Hyunjin’s body. “No! Let him sleep. It’s raining and he doesn’t like it.”

“He’s trying to eat Jeongin though,” Jisung pointed out.

“I think it’s a hug,” Jeongin said, tickling the tentacle at his shoulder. “Just with more arms.”

“Octopuses have their mouth in the middle of their tentacles,” Jisung said excitedly, prodding at Hyunjin’s unusual octopus skin. “It’s a beak that’s the only solid part of their body. He could be eating Innie.”

The join of Hyunjin’s tentacles was hidden by his shorts and Jeongin wasn’t going to check what kind of anatomy he had down there. Considering Hyunjin already had a mouth, he had a feeling it would be different but that was something he could live without knowing. He was also trying not to think about his knowledge of octopus reproductive organs but with Hyunjin unconscious Jisung had decided to show his interest in his biology.

“I wonder which one is his dick,” Jisung said, pulling the tip of a tentacle off of Jeongin’s arm.

“What?” Changbin asked, scandalised.

“Male octopuses have their reproductive organ on the end of their third arm,” Jeongin said, wishing he didn’t know that. Growing up in Busan there had been plenty of fresh octopus for eating and a number of his relatives had an octopus as a shift so marine species education had been a solid part of his childhood.

“Third arm.” Jisung hummed thoughtfully. “I wonder which way you’re supposed to count them.”

“His dick could be down your shirt?” Changbin asked, horrified. He tried to pull Hyunjin’s tentacles back but then seemed to freak out and jumped back, hitting his elbow off of Hyunjin’s head in his panic. Jeongin knew before the others that Hyunjin had woken up because the pressure from the tentacles changed.

“Ow,” Hyunjin groaned. “What-?” He half sat up in confusion.

“Hi,” Jeongin smiled warmly at him. “Can you let go please?”

Hyunjin blushed deeply and his tentacles painlessly unstuck, retracting back towards him. “I am _so_ sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Jeongin said. He was covered in sucker welts though, a sign of his lost battle, and he was disheveled from the ordeal. “You’re, uh, clingy when you sleep.”

“Yeah, that a- In the sewer I have to- Sorry,” Hyunjin said again. “I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s ok,” Jeongin assured him, straightening out his clothes again. They had shut the door and Hyunjin didn't seem to have realised that it was raining again. The longer they could keep him distracted from it the better. “Do you want the light out so you can shift back?”

Hyunjin glanced around and shrunk back slightly as he noticed Jisung. “Um, I think I’ll stay like this?” Hyunjin said. “But I maybe need some water?”

“I get you some,” Changbin said quickly and disappeared into his office.

“So which tentacle is your dick?” Jisung asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tag yourself, im jisung


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i realised every time ive said epipen i meant glucogen injection so pretend i said that instead unless i have gone back and fixed it all before youve read this far in which case ignore all that
> 
> anyway, welcome to Jisung faces Consequences

“So which tentacle is your dick?” Jisung asked.

“Han Jisung!” Chan’s voice rang down the stairs, loud and angry. “Go to your room. Now.” His tone left no room for argument but Jisung did anyway.

“It was a fucking _question_!” Jisung said, turning to show his affronted expression to Chan who was now standing at the top of the stairs. Chan’s face was stony and he had his arms crossed, a wooden spoon held in one hand.

“It’s fine,” Hyunjin said shakely, glancing frantically around to try and get a read on everyone.

“It’s not,” Chan said firmly. “Jisung is being rude for no good reason and I won’t let it stand. Jisung- go to your room until you’re ready to behave like a decent person.”

“Maybe _YOU_ should behave like a decent parent and fucking _ASK_ if we want to expand the freak show!” Jisung screamed at him, leaning forward with the force of the words coming out of him. 

Jeongin knew what happened next and pulled Hyunjin to the floor, covering their heads. True enough, Jisung’s hands lit up with his blue flames burning so bright they burned black holes on the paint on the walls either side of him. Changbin’s fleece, hanging on a peg by the door caught aflame and melted to nothing in seconds. And then, as quickly as it started, Jisung burned out and passed out, his flames extinguished. Hyunjin reached out and pressed a hand against Jisung’s back just before Chan reached him and slowed his fall enough that Chan could scoop Jisung out of the air before he hit the ground. Chan slammed his foot into the wall to slow his momentum from speeding down the stairs as he cradled Jisung to his chest and sighed as he reached a stop with his foot through the plasterboard.

“Sorry Bin,” Chan said with a wince. Jeongin hadn’t noticed but Changbin was standing in the doorway with a bowl of water he’d collected for Hyunjin. He hadn’t spilled a single drop and was just staring as his home fell apart.

“I can fix it,” Changbin said assuredly, setting the bowl carefully on the floor. “Glucagon?” He had already turned to go to the store room to get some. They had a ridiculous number of glucagon kits in the house at any one time, normally scattered in various rooms. Jisung wasn’t diabetic but the effect his magic surges had on his blood sugar was the same kind of problem and Chan preferred to inject him for safety when he collapsed like that rather than wait to see if his body started shutting down. Jeongin quietly explained all this to Hyunjin as Changbin came back and confidently loaded the needle and stabbed it straight through Jisung’s jeans into his thigh. Changbin put the needle away, Chan turned Jisung on his side and they sat back to wait.

“He’s gonna be embarrassed when he wakes up,” Changbin noted.

“And then he’s gonna spike again,” Jeongin added.

“Well hopefully it’s just confusion until it’s safe to move him to his room,” Chan said. He looked up at Hyunjin and sent him a friendly smile. “This happens quite a lot. He’s fine. Strong emotions activate his magic and he’s not got enough of it yet to not burn through all his blood sugar when that happens.”

“And he just… passes out?” Hyunjin asked, skeptically.

“Normally,” Jeongin said. “He’ll wake up in a little while, probably vomit everywhere. This is why he doesn’t go to school.” The magic, the lack of control, the fire, the fainting, the medical emergency and the vomiting. There were a lot of reasons Jisung wasn’t in school but it was all the same problem.

“...Right,” Hyunjin said. His tentacles started moving, seemingly on their own, reaching out and pulling back and curling and uncurling. It was pretty distracting, especially when one found Jeongin again and latched on.

“Hyunjin, you’re doing it again,” Jeongin said loudly, before he ended up smothered again.

“Right, sorry,” Hyunjin said and all eight of the tentacles pulled back again. “I’ll shift. I can.. I just…”

“Darkness?” Jeongin asked gently. Changbin helpfully flicked the lightswitch and they were left in weak light coming from Changbin’s workshop. Hyunjin managed to shift back fairly quickly, which was even more impressive because technically it was still raining outside- he just hadn’t noticed what with Jisung… being Jisung.

“Done,” Hyunjin whispered when he had legs again.

“Do you want the lights again?” Changbin asked softly, keeping his voice volume the same as Hyunjin’s.

“Yeah, it’s fine now,” Hyunjin said shyly. They we reilluminated and Jeongin blinked to see Hyunjin rubbing his legs nervously. 

“Do you need moisturiser?” he asked. “Sometimes my body feels weird after shifting too.”

“Uhh,” Hyunjin said, gripping his knee too tightly. Jeogin reached over slowly and pulled his hand away. 

“Your skin looks dry,” he said since it appeared Hyunjin wasn’t going to ask for help on his own. “Let’s go to the bathroom and get some. My sucker marks could use moisturising too.”

Hyunjin did better with instruction and clumsily stood on his own with only a little push from Changbin when he listed towards the wall.

“Just step over Jisung,” Chan said. They were blocking the bottom of the stairs. Jeongin ignored his offered hand but Hyunjin took it and was helped over Jisung’s prone body. Jeongin took his other hand and tugged him up the stairs when Hyunjin paused, staring at Jisung’s pale face. Jisung would be fine- he always was. He just looked a little dead for a while after setting the room on fire. It was normal.

***

“It’s raining again,” Hyunjin noted when they got to the bathroom.

 _Well done, Sherlock,_ Jeongin sassed in his head. It had been raining right beside Hyunjin the entire time they were downstairs and he hadn’t clocked it but, sure, now they were upstairs and could only hear it lightly on the window, now Hyunjin would notice. He didn’t say that though.

“It’s only a drizzle,” he said. He pulled his dungarees off his shoulders and pulled his t-shirt off. “Look how many sucker marks you gave me.” The distraction worked perfectly and Hyunjin’s eyes widened in shock. He trailed one finger down a line of circles crossing Jeongin’s collarbone. 

“I’m really sorry,” he said sincerely. Jeongin’s arms were littered with marks, his left arm especially bad, and Hyunjin turned it over, wincing as he saw the marks he’d made. “Slap me to wake me up next time I do that.”

“I might hold you to that,” Jeongin said with a grin. He pressed the bottle of cheap moisturiser into Hyunjin’s hand. “Prove your guilt by putting that on them,” he ordered and sat on the closed toilet seat. It was going to be a long task.

Hyunjin’s hands were gentle and he seemed to know exactly what to do to soothe the itch. Jeongin asked about it after a moment of indecision but it turned out Hyunjin’s backstory wasn’t all tragic and he’d accidentally suckered his adopted parents a lot as a kid. That’s who ‘Auntie’ and ‘Uncle’ had been- a nice elderly couple that took a very strange boy out of the river and raised him. Hyunjin had a clingy personality apparently but he hadn’t suckered anybody with suckers this large before.

“Is that all of them?” Hyunjin asked as he finished at the back of Jeongin’s neck. Jeongin hadn’t even realised a tentacle had gotten that far.

“Ah, my legs too,” Jeongin said. Perhaps it was Hyunjin’s bodily disasters that did it but he was surprisingly not shy about stripping in front of him. “I can do them and you can do your own?” he offered, stripping off his dungarees completely. Hyunjin hadn’t gotten very far up his trouser legs with the tentacles so there wasn’t much left to do, mostly just the layered marks on his ankles. It was a weird bonding moment, moisturising your legs with your new adoptive brother, but Hyunjin got more talkative when he had something to do and so they ended up having a long conversation about the cons of shifting that lasted long after they were finished.

A knock on the door reminded Jeongin he was still just sitting in his underwear and he hastily pulled his dungarees back up. “Yeah?”

Chan stuck his head around the door. “Dinner went to shit. What takeout do you want?”

Not sushi," Jeongin said quickly. It was Jisung's favourite but Jeongin had seen enough seafood for one day.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jeongin says Maknae on Top

As predicted, Jisung did vomit once he woke up (an unfortunate side effect of the injection) and, as predicted, he did immediately get emotional again, set fire to something again, and pass out again. And it wasn’t the last time that day. Chan had had to annul any punishment Jisung would have gotten for his rudeness to Hyunjin just to keep Jisung conscious and he looked so worn down by the time Jisung was stable that Jeongin didn’t bring up the injustice of it. Instead he brought Chan a cup of tea and sat down to wait.

Once Chan had relaxed with a few calming sips of tea he sighed and tipped his head back on the couch to stare at the ceiling. “What am I going to do, Innie?” he asked. Jeongin wasn’t sure he actually wanted an answer.

“Try really hard to please everyone, fail, and cry when you think nobody can hear you,” Jeongin replied, recounting the events of earlier in the evening. Hyunjin had asked about Jeongin’s shifts and he’d had his massive desert fox ears at just the right time to hear Chan quietly losing it in the bathroom.

“Ow,” Chan said, sounding offended. “I was hoping for support, not the harsh slap of reality, In.”

“I’m just calling it like it is,” Jeongin replied. He was known for not holding back with his opinion but really he held back more than they probably realised. It was easier to keep things secret when people thought you had already told them everything. He considered his next sentence carefully. If Chan got wind that he felt insecure he’d be questioned more often but he had to know. “Was it like this when I arrived?”

“When you arrived?” Chan echoed. “That feels like years ago. But no, it wasn’t like this at all. Jisung had time to get used to you I think. He wasn’t happy with the change but he wasn’t angry. Now… I don’t even know how to talk to him about it without setting his magic off. I know my Jisungie is in there but he…”

“He keeps hulking out?” Jeongin suggested.

“Yeah. Pretty much,” Chan agreed. “Maybe it’s hormones.” He sighed and shook his head at the thought of Jisung’s new attitude lasting. “You hadn’t had as difficult a life as Hyunjin either,” Chan added. “That helped. You chose to live here, you had your parents supporting you and I knew what you needed. Poor Hyunjin has had his life flipped upside down more than once and he doesn’t need Sungie’s drama on top of it all. Maybe he’d be better somewhere else.”

“Don’t give him to the Council,” Jeongin said quickly, grabbing onto Chan’s arm. “You can’t. They don’t like shifters. He’ll be bullied if he goes into that programme you were in.”

“They have therapists there, In,” Chan said. “Ones with hundreds of years of expertise. They can help Hyunjin through his trauma better than I can and they might know more about the type of shifter he is, find someone else like him.”

“Did you know a single shifter in that programme?” Jeongin asked.

“Well, no-” Chan started.

“ _Exactly.”_ Jeongin cut him off. “I bet lost shifters get- get-” a hundred terrible situations rose to the front of his mind but he didn’t dare voice any of them because Chan would just brush his fears off. Or worse, Chan wouldn’t and then he’d _know._ He got up abruptly and ran out the room. He had planned on going to his bedroom but on impulse he passed by it and knocked on the door to Chan’s room at the end of the hallway.

“Hyunjin? Are you awake?” he peered around the doorframe. Hyunjin was sitting cross-legged in the middle of Chan’s bed, one of Jeongin’s syllabus books in his hands. Jeongin had only read a few pages while waiting for the bell but Hyunjin looked to be a few chapters in.

“If Chan asks if you want to go live in the Council, say no,” Jeongin said firmly. If Chan wouldn’t listen, maybe Hyunjin would. “They hate shifters there. They’ll make you stop shifting or use you like a weapon to get what they want. Chan thinks it’s fine because he’s a vampire and they, like, run the whole thing but they don’t care about shifters at all. They’d be happier if we were all dead. You can’t go there. Promise you won’t.”

“I won’t,” Hyunjin agreed softly. “If you think it’s bad, I won’t.”

“Good,” Jeongin said, the panic in his chest melting slightly at Hyunjin’s trust in him. “Are you enjoying my book?” he asked skeptically. The wording in it was unnecessarily difficult to read and Jeongin was hoping to rely on other people's interpretations of the text in class.

“It’s interesting,” Hyunjin answered, closing the book with his finger marking his place to look at the cover. “Do you need it back?”

Jeongin waved the offered book away. “Not for a while- you can keep reading. If you understand it you can help me when I have to write an essay on it,” he joked.

“Of course,” Hyunjin said, nodding seriously. “Do you have paper I can use? I’ll take notes.”

“Oh! No!” Jeongin said quickly. “That was a joke. I can’t make you write my essays.”

“I want to help you,” Hyunjin said, opening the book again. “You’ve helped me so now I can help you.” He nodded to himself and looked through the pages he’d just read. “There’s an ongoing freedom metaphor. Am I allowed to mark it with pencil or should I note what pages it is?”

 _There was a what now?_ Jeongin stole a pencil from Chan’s desk and crawled up the bed to hand it to Hyunjin. “Where?” he asked as Hyunjin drew a tiny star in the margin of his page and bracketed a couple of lines.

“Here,” Hyunjin said, moving the book so it was between them both. He flipped back a few pages. “There was another line…. here!” He marked that page the same though Jeongin didn’t follow what made that line special. Maybe he needed to read the book. “I think it might be a hint to the outcome with these two characters..” Hyunjin trailed off as he flipped further back to the start of the book. “See how he’s introduced.”

“Nope,” Jeongin answered honestly. He’d skimmed over anything that wasn’t an action. 

“Ok,” Hyunjin said determinedly. He wriggled back on the bed until he had his back against the headboard and held out an arm for Jeongin to follow him. Jeongin went, only because Hyunjin was the answer to passing his literature class. Hyunjin settled his arm across Jeongin’s shoulders and flipped the pencil around to point with the rubber or the end. It meant they were very squished together but Jeongin found he didn’t mind. “This line is the first one I noticed.”

“I haven’t read that far,” Jeongin admitted.

“ _Ok,”_ Hyunjin said and flipped all the way to the first page. “How much time do you have before bed?”

“You really are a Hyung,” Jeongin muttered in disgust, resigning himself to additional unplanned education.

“Are you going to start respecting me now then?” Hyunjin asked, with a cheeky smile. “Can I get you to call me ‘Hyung’?”

“Absolutely not,” Jeongin retorted. “Teach me, sewer boy.”

“I’m from the river,” Hyunjin said lightly. “Originally. I grew up by the docks.”

“Still gross. It’s full of fish guts.”

“Dinner,” Hyunjin corrected with a grin. Jeongin gagged. He couldn’t tell if Hyunjin was joking but he _really_ hoped he was.


	11. Chapter 11

Over the next few days Hyunjin gained a bed (in Jeongin’s room), a wardrobe (also in Jeongin’s room), a scholastic evaluation (he was educationally in the year above Jeongin) and a sworn enemy (Jisung).

Jisung was not subtle with his dislike of Hyunjin. He’d ignore Hyunjin completely, leave taps running around the house so the dripping would put Hyunjin on edge, and very loudly tell Chan how much he wanted Hyunjin gone. Jeongin was surprised to find that Hyunjin had started to retaliate and he’d honed in on Jisung’s biggest weakness- his magic. It took very little to set Jisung’s magic off as any burst of emotion would cause a surge he couldn’t control so when Jisung left a tap on Hyunjin would jump scare him. All of this was out of sight of Chan of course but Jeongin was sure the vampire was aware of what was happening. Even when Jeongin had been out of the house all day at school he could tell they had been setting each other off because both of them were on edge and exhausted.

He came home on Friday to Changbin and Hyunjin in the shop. They’d laid a bunch of Changbin’s wares on the table and were sorting them by some system Jeongin couldn’t work out.

“Did you have a good day at school, Innie?” Changbin asked, looking up with a smile. 

Jeongin swung his bag in a circle and let it go to crash through the curtain into Changbin’s workshop. “Take a fucking guess.”

“How was lit. class?” Hyunjin asked. Jeongin had had to hand in an outline of his essay.

“Oh, that was fine,” Jeongin admitted. “All approved. Thanks, Nerd.” He gave Hyunjin a thumbs up. “Nice to see Jisung-hyung hasn’t murdered you yet.”

Changbin rolled his eyes. “Don’t. They had a fight at lunch.”

“He wouldn’t let me past!” Hyunjin protested. “You saw it!”

“And fake punching him was the best solution?” Changbin said, words dripping with judgement.

“I didn’t touch him,” Hyunjin argued. “I have manners, unlike him.” Jisung had apparently progressed to pushing Hyunjin down the stairs yesterday. Hyunjin’s panic response was to shift so he wasn’t injured when it happened but now he was out for Jisung’s blood.

“You are so similar it’s killing me,” Changbin said with a sigh. “I swear you’d be good friends if you just gave each other a chance.”

“I would rather die than befriend Han Jisung,” Hyunjin said decidedly.

“It’s fucking mutual,” Jisung said, coming through the door behind Jeongin with his middle finger raised at Hyunjin as he walked past. Changbin sighed again as Hyunjin faked a lunge at Jisung and Jisung flinched. Jisung recovered quickly and raised a fist in response. “Fucking watch your back, Sashimi.”

“Watch yours,” Hyunjin retorted, unbothered by Jisung’s threat. Jisung ignored him and swept through the curtain with a flourish. Jeongin watched him go and saw the flames grow from where Jisung had touched it.

“Hyung, where’s the fire extinguisher?” He asked idly, trying to decide if his school bag was in danger and if he cared.

“Beside the door in the workshop,” Changbin answered as he examined the ring in his hands. He then seemed to process the question and quickly put the ring down. “Why?” 

Jeongin gestured to the growing fire. “We might have to go the long way to get it.”

Hyunjin smiled smugly as he saw the fruits of his effort and Changbin scrambled to run around the back of the shop, past the store room and the back door, to reach the fire extinguisher. Changbin put out the fire before it touched Jeongin’s school bag. He didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved. 

“Well, I’ve got homework,” he announced once the curtain was a smoldering mess on the floor. He stepped gingerly over it and scooped up his bag. “See you later.”

“Do you want help?” Hyunjin called after him. 

“It’s maths!” Jeongin called back.

“Help redacted!” Hyunjin yelled as Jeongin got further away. “Have fun!”

Jisung was carving his name into the dining room table with a knife when Jeongin reached the top of the stairs. The knife was red hot and the table was smoking.

“You good?” Jeongin asked. He knew the answer was no but Jisung got more upset if he was ignored. “The curtain went on fire.”

“I’m fine,” Jisung replied, struggling with the circle for the ‘ng’ of his name.

“‘Kay.” Jeongin watched Jisung for a moment. “Can I do my homework here? You don’t have to move.”

Jisung nodded and didn’t look up. Jeongin dumped his bag at the place opposite him and crossed the room to open the kitchen door and the kitchen window before he went to get changed. Chan had long ago gotten rid of all fire alarms which was both a blessing and a _massive_ health risk but that was just what it was like to live with Han Jisung. 

He did his homework in silence as Jisung continued his carving across from him. Eventually Jisung calmed down enough and the knife cooled enough to stop burning the table. Jeongin almost missed the charred wood incense and looked up from his exercise. 

“What’s thirteen minus six?” he asked, just to engage Jisung.

“Seven,” Jisung replied. “Are you in the dumb maths class?”

Jeongin didn’t answer as he wrote his next line of working. Once the problem was solved he spun his jotter around to show Jisung the twelve lines of working, of which ‘thirteen minus six’ wasn’t deemed vital enough to be included. Jisung recoiled with a grimace.

“I thought you went to art school. I don’t remember doing shit that complicated in regular school.” Jisung hadn’t finished regular school thanks to his magic so there was a good chance he’d never gotten that far in his mathematical education, the lucky bastard. He’d been allowed to switch to mystic homeschooling which taught more practical, long-lasting skills than calculus. 

Jeongin’s parents didn’t allow him that option. They thought an integration with human society was essential and had a deep distrust of the mystic curriculum. So he’d gone to school like a regular kid, which was funny because his school back in Busan had been 90% shifters even though it followed the human curriculum. His current school was much better for human integration despite not being their choice. Jeongin had begged them to let him audition for SOPA in Seoul a couple of years ago when the bullying had reached an all-time. It had been a desperate bid for escape from a community he didn’t fit in and his parents had allowed it having seen how miserable he was. Jeongin knew they didn’t expect him to get in but they’d made a promise and so he’d gotten out of Busan for five days a week as a boarder. It wasn’t the dream school he’d thought it would be and the classes were difficult to maintain the school’s reputation of prime education but it was infinitely better than his previous school.

“I am at an art school,” Jeongin replied. “Even artists need to know how to add.”

“Calculators,” Jisung replied. “Accountants, if you're really good at art. Like, an actor or something. Are you going to become an actor, In? You could change your body to fit the part.”

“Nah, I’m going to steal your job,” Jeongin informed him, taking his jotter back and copying down the next problem. “Might steal your face too.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have my first driving lesson in 10 minutes and i am strangely nervous so im posting this as a distraction
> 
> time skips bc we dont need all the sad in hd

Jeongin started to dread coming home from school because the house was so full of tension. Three weekends in a row he went down to Busan to visit his family to avoid it which surprised his mum but she was delighted to get the chance to fuss over him again. She kept saying how big he was getting and asking about his schoolwork. She never mentioned his shifts. Nobody in the family did, not even when they asked his younger brother about his. _Jeongin doesn’t shift._ That was the unspoken understanding even though he did shift now. He was too scared to bring it up though because while he could shift he was still miles behind and he didn’t want that pity again. It was better to pretend that part of him didn’t exist.

He’d been hesitant to bring up Hyunjin because of that. If they talked about Hyunjin’s shifting surely they’d have to talk about his. Remarkably, that wasn’t the case. His father suggested forming different memories with Hyunjin related to the rain and recommended the same exercises Jeongin had learnt for shifting in a controlled manner. They didn’t talk about how Jeongin was managing with the exercises. He knew they were doing it to not make him feel like a loser but he still did all the same. When the school holidays started his mum asked if he wanted to go on holiday with them but he knew they’d all use their marine shifts or worse, someone would have to stay on land with him. He didn’t want that kind of pity so he rejected the offer. He’d rather be in the crossfire.

Chan made a mistake. He tried to send Jisung away to learn magic control from his old friend Brian and Jisung definitely took that to mean Chan was replacing him with Hyunjin. And that definitely did not incur the best of emotional responses in Jisung.

“Is it safe for him to pass out like that so often?” Hyunjin asked Jeongin quietly. They were holed up in their room while Chan and Changbin looked after Jisung. Hyunjin always had to hide if Jisung passed out, whether he was the cause of it or not, and Jeongin normally stayed with him since Hyunjin had problems of his own.

“Probably not,” Jeongin admitted. “Most witches go through this kind of stage at some point and they can get a damper put on by another witch until they can control it but Channie-hyung didn’t want Jisung-hyung to get that in case it gave him depression. The damper messes with their magic base sometimes apparently and Jisung-hyung’s is emotion so…" He shrugged. Jisung might suddenly become an emotionless husk of a boy but Jeongin didn't want to say that. "He was doing pretty well before.”

“Before I arrived,” Hyunjin finished. He looked out the window where clouds were starting to gather in the sky. “I don’t know why he hates me so much. I’m not trying to _steal_ his family, I just want to live somewhere where I won’t die.”

He looked so lost. Jisung never got to see this side of Hyunjin. The boy with nowhere else to go and nobody else to love him. Hyunjin had quickly put up a front of indifference outside this room and even when the rain scared him enough to trigger a shift he acted more fed-up with it than anything. He’d gotten good at shifting back too, able to do it with the lights on now. Jeongin knew he was constantly on edge though. He knew Hyunjin couldn’t sleep when it rained and he had to fill a bucket to wash himself because the shower pouring water over his body brought back such terrible memories that Hyunjin was physically stuck to the bathroom tiles for hours. It had to be exhausting and it only made Hyunjin less tolerant to Jisung’s bullshit.

Likewise, Jisung had had so many drops in the last few weeks that he was losing weight he didn’t have spare to lose and any resilience he might have had for Hyunjin’s retaliation was completely gone. The slightest thing would make him angry now and sometimes all it took was a smirk from Hyunjin to trigger another magic burnout. The injustice of being sent to be taught by Brian was more than enough. Jeongin couldn’t see a way this would ever work out well and Chan was running out of ideas too. He had probably hoped to give Hyunjin and Jisung some distance from each other while Jisung got his magic under better control but he’d only introduced another problem.

Changbin knocked quietly on their door and slipped into the room. “Sung is awake again. He’s stable.”

“That’s good,” Hyunjin mumbled. Though he often tried to scare Jisung he was never aiming for a magic outburst after he’d seen what had happened that first night.

“Hyung was talking about getting him dampened, just until he puts the weight back on. He can’t really afford to get that close again,” Changbin added, leaning back on the door. Changbin was an adult, technically, but he’d always been like an older brother to Jeongin and Jisung. He’d had to really step up as an adult recently and Jeongin didn’t get to spend time with Changbin like he used to. Hyunjin really had pulled their family apart but it wasn’t his fault snd Jeongin couldn’t find it in himself to even wish him gone. He just wished it wasn’t like this.

“Has Jisung-hyung agreed to it?” Jeongin asked.

“I’m not sure he gets a choice, In,” Changbin said with a sigh. He crossed the room and took Jeongin into his arms to hug him. Jeongin let him. Everyone needs more hugs right now. “His body can’t take it.”

Across the room from them Hyunjin’s face settled into an unhappy frown. “Jeongin, I know you said I shouldn’t go to the Council but-”

“No!” Jeongin said sharply. “No, you’re not going there. Just stop fighting with Jisung-hyung and it will be alright.”

“He hates me!” Hyunjin said exaspiratedly. “And I hate him. We’re never going to get along.”

“He’s not thinking straight right now,” Changbin defended his brother. “If he can get a damper and just get a chance to process his emotions properly it’ll all be fine.”

“And what if it’s not?” Hyunjin said. “What if he’s still a bitch?”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im trying to speedrun through the sadness so here's another chapter even though I literally posted the last one 6 hours ago

Jisung's POV

Jisung felt awful. He’d been feeling awful for weeks though so that was nothing new. He was dizzy, disorientated, tired. He’d apparently just thrown up again but he couldn’t remember it. He’d been stabbed again, adding to the forest of green bruises on his thighs, and moved while he was unconscious or incoherent. Chan wanted him to eat again. He was too nauseous to eat. He was too tired to eat. He just wanted to sleep.

“You can’t, Sungie,” Chan said gently, poking his cheek. “No sleeping, you know the rules.”

“I can’t,” Jisung moaned, turning his face away. Tears started leaking from his eyes. He wasn’t even sad or angry, it was just happening.

“I know it’s hard, Sungie,” Chan said, “but you need to at least stay awake. You can drink something in a while when your stomach has settled.”

“I can’t, Hyung,” Jisung repeated. He just _couldn’t_. With everything.

“I know, baby,” Chan said. He’d been mad at Jisung when this started happening again, when _Hyunjin_ arrived, but as the burnouts kept happening he got gentler. Jisung knew in the back of his mind it was because he got closer to dying every time but it was hard to worry about that when he was so tired. He kept waking up though so he was fine. All witches went through this at some point, it was fine. “I know we agreed before to let you get used to your magic without a damper,” Chan said. Jisung could see where this was going. “But it’s too much for you right now. You need a break, Sung. You can’t keep doing this.”

“Get rid of Hyunjin,” Jisung replied. “He’s the problem.” If Hyunjin was just gone his life could go back to the way he liked it.

“You know I can’t do that,” Chan said. “He’s got nowhere to go, Sung, and Innie is terrified that if I let him go in the Council system he’ll never come out again.”

“Find him another family then,” Jisung said. Chan had a million friends. Surely, one of them could take a freaky octopus boy that was scared of rain.

“He’s staying,” Chan said firmly. “And I think you would be good friends for each other if you stopped fighting. If you get a damper-”

“God, _fine,”_ Jisung said. He was tired but just enough energy had returned for him to feel the magic building again. If Chan kept going he was going to burn out again. “Put the stupid spell on me so you’ve got one less kid to worry about.”

“That’s not-”

“Yes it is!” Jisung said. His heart was starting to race and he tried to remind his body how tired he was before it spent all his energy sending sparks from his fingertips again. “You can’t handle four kids so you need to turn one of us off and I’m the easiest one!” Too late. His magic rushed to his fingers and his sight went black again.

When he woke up again he was tired but nothing else. It should have set off alarm bells but it was like someone had come in and stolen part of his brain in his sleep. He couldn’t even find a way to be scared by that. He looked around and he was still in his own bed in his own room. Chan was sitting on Changbin’s bed and he was crying. That was a bad thing, right? Why didn’t it feel like a bad thing? Chan looked up in surprise.

“Sungie! You’re awake!”

“What happened?” Jisung asked. He swung his legs out of the bed and sat up. Everything felt weird, like he was standing too far back inside his own head.

“I had to,” Chan said. “I had to get a damper put on you. I’m so sorry, Sungie, but you couldn’t stay awake long enough to make the decision.”

Ah. That explained it. He would have gotten mad at Chan for that but he didn’t know how to anymore. He didn’t know how he felt about that.

“How do you feel, Sungie?” Chan asked.

“I don’t know,” Jisung answered after trying for a moment to find an emotion. It was normally right there, bubbling on the surface, but now he was only vaguely sure he was tired. “Tired,” he said when Chan’s eyebrows furrowed in worry. “I’m just tired.”

“Eat something before you sleep,” Chan said. “You’ve not eaten in a while.”

Jisung ate what was placed in front of him. He could taste it but he couldn’t. It took him too long to realise that the problem was that he had no emotional attachment to the tastes. He didn’t like them or hate them, they were just there. That should scare him but it didn’t. He finished the food. What did it matter what he thought of it.

Changbin came and gave him a hug before he went back to bed. He’d never had a Changbin hug without emotions. It didn’t feel like a hug. He went to sleep. He woke up. The tired was gone. He missed it. He scrolled through apps and saw nothing interesting. He didn’t eat breakfast until Chan gave it to him.

“Are you ok, Hyung?” Jeongin asked at breakfast. Hyunjin was beside him and normally just looking at Hyunjin would get anger burning in his chest. Now he just thought that Hyunjin looked a bit tired. He’d never looked at his face close enough to notice before. “Hyung?” Jeongin asked again. He had to answer.

“I’m…” Jisung started. He couldn’t find the next word. He wasn’t anything. He just was. Hyunjin was looking at him judgmentally. Normally he would have hit Hyunjin by now. Maybe if he hit Hyunjin he would feel something. He tried it, throwing the apple by his elbow at Hyunjin’s face. Hyunjin looked furious but Jisung didn’t feel anything. Maybe if he punched Hyunjin directly.


	14. Chapter 14

The opportunity to punch Hyunjin was denied to Jisung. Mostly by Hyunjin launching the apple straight back at him and Chan coming back just in time to witness this and sending them to their rooms. This hadn’t happened before, at least not to Jisung, because he’d always gotten too emotional. He was always angry at Hyunjin or angry at Chan but right now he couldn’t work out why. Maybe he was the problem.

He lay back on his unmade bed and poked at the sticky damp patch by the shoulder of his t-shirt where the apple had made impact. Hyunjin had thrown it much harder than he had. He didn’t really care. He should care though. He should be burning with anger but the damper on his magic had taken it all away. He tried to light a flame on his palm but the magic inside him was dead, the Fae words no more than words. He wondered how long this would last for.

Chan came to visit his jail cell and looked sadly at him. “Why are you still doing this, Sung?” he asked.

“Hyunjin did it too,” Jisung answered, staring at the ceiling. “He hit me harder.” He knew that wasn’t a reason but as long as Hyunjin was fighting back it felt like a war he was allowed to wage.

“I heard,” Chan said. “Are you hurt?”

“Dunno,” Jisung replied. He’d felt the impact as a pressure pushing his shoulder back but the pain never registered.

“You don’t know?” Chan asked with a frown. 

Jisung raised his arms toward the ceiling. His body felt weird. The t-shirt stuck to his skin a little. Taking the t-shirt off to check for a bruise he couldn’t feel sounded like too much work. He decided to run another test. He dropped his left arm down so it was in front of him, the soft skin of the underside of his arm facing up, and then he spread the fingers of his right hand and brought them down quickly. 

“Jisung!” Chan cried. He caught Jisung’s hand a moment too late so Jisung must have surprised him. Red welts in the shape of his fingers were already blooming on his skin. “Why the hell would you do that?”

“Doesn’t hurt,” Jisung said, examining the handprint with morbid curiosity. “I can’t feel anything.”

“Don’t hurt yourself!” Chan said desperately. “God, I-”

“Doesn’t hurt,” Jisung said, cutting him off.

“It _does,”_ Chan said “You’re not registering it right now but it is hurting you. You have to be kind to yourself, Sung.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Chan echoed. He sounded stressed. Maybe that was why. So Chan wasn’t stressed.

“Yeah, no, it’s fine,” Jisung said. “You can go check Hyunjin isn’t hurt now.” Chan didn’t let go of his hand. “I’m fine,” Jisung said, pulling his hands back and crossing his arms so the slap mark wasn’t visible. “You can take my phone as punishment or whatever.”

“I-” Chan pushed Jisung’s hair away from his eyes and looked at him for too long. “I wish I knew the best way to help you, Sung.”

“Get rid of Hyunjin,” Jisung said, turning his face away. It was Hyunjin’s fault he’d had his feelings taken away. It was Hyunjin’s fault his magic had gotten so out of control in the first place.

“I’m making you two talk to each other,” Chan decided suddenly. He pulled on Jisung’s arm. “Come on, up. You’re going to sit at the dining table until you’ve talked this out.”

Jisung let Chan pull him up enough until he thought Jisung was going on his own and then as soon as Chan was out of the room he lay back down. He didn’t want to talk to Hyunjin. He wanted Hyunjin to disappear.

Eventually Chan reappeared and dragged him out of bed again with far less gentleness. He pushed Jisung until he was facing the door to the dining room. “When you’ve talked to each other come find me in my room,” he said and left Jisung there.

Jisung stared at the grain of the wooden door. He wondered how long he could stand there before Chan came to find him again. Probably a very long time. Chan was an exceptionally patient person. He had to be to keep Jisung around for so long. Chan did a lot for him and Jisung just made his life difficult. Maybe he could just pretend to make up with Hyunjin to make Chan happy. He opened the door.

Hyunjin was sitting on the seat closest to the stairs, probably so he could escape to the back door if it rained. He had his leg braced against the table to lean the chair back on two legs and was looking down his nose at Jisung. “Nice of you to finally arrive,” he said sarcastically.

“I didn’t want to see your ugly face,” Jisung replied.

“I see turning you off and on again didn’t make you a better person,” Hyunjin, looking Jisung up and down in disdain. “Maybe now you’re not a living bomb people will stop being nice to you just to stop the house catching fire. You’ll see how much of an annoying bitch you really are.”

Jisung was going to offer a cease fire but he was starting to reconsider punching Hyunjin in the face. He wasn’t annoying. He wasn’t. His family loved him. Hyunjin was the problem, sitting in the middle of Jisung’s house with that infuriating smug smile like he fucking owned the place. Jisung took a step forward, grabbed Hyunjin’s leg that was balancing him against the table and pushed. 

Hyunjin tumbled down the stairs as he had so many times now, shifting as the panic of freefall hit to wrap his tentacles around himself. Jisung used to love watching it, the way Hyunjin’s legs changed so quickly and his suckers would grab onto the steps as he bounced to slow him down, peeling back off with a satisfying pop. He didn’t get any joy from watching it this time.

It wasn’t just Hyunjin that fell. The chair he had been sitting on him tipped too far back and fell too, crashing into Hyunjin just as he’d formed his protective ball. One of the legs went through a gap between two of Hyunjin’s tentacles and hit with force. Jisung saw it all in horrifying detail as if someone had slowed the scene down just for him. The tension in Hyunjin’s tentacles disappeared all at once and they stopped protecting him as he tumbled to the bottom of the stairs to land on the chair that had made it to the bottom before him. Jisung knew something had gone horribly wrong long before that.

“CHAN-HYUNG!” he screamed from the top of the stairs, unable to look away from Hyunjin’s limb body. The panic hit all at once, along with the rest of his emotions, and he barely got the word out before his magic stole consciousness from him.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had great fun reading all your comments on the last chapter. you guys knew it was coming, why were some of you still shocked?
> 
> also bare in mind that hyunjin is completely fine in all the other bcc fics

Jisung woke up with a gasp to shrill beeping and tight bindings across his chest. It took him a moment to realise he was in a hospital bed, the tucked sheet preventing him from sitting up while the machines attached to his arms by wires and tubes screamed that he was awake. Chan shot up from the chair beside him and tried to get Jisung to relax against the too-soft pillows.

“Hyunjin,” Jisung said with his first breath. “Where’s Hyunjin?”

“Shh, shh,” Chan said. “Deep breaths, Sung.”

“Where is he??” Jisung asked, twisting his head to try and work out where he was. It was a small room with one other bed. That bed was empty and the corridor outside was quiet. Why wasn’t Chan with Hyunjin? Hyunjin needed help.

“They’re still examining him,” Chan admitted. “He’s in good hands.”

“How long has it been?” Jisung asked as one of his monitors beeped more insistently. If it was monitoring his magic it was going to go berserk in a second when he lost control.

“An hour or so,” Chan said.

“An hour?!” Jisung exclaimed. Something stopped his magic from burning out but it felt awful, like he was holding a live wire. He couldn’t focus on that though because apparently Hyunjin was still lying hurt somewhere and _nobody_ was healing him. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s stable,” Chan assured Jisung. “They just can’t heal him until they know what organs he has. He has at least two heart beats so they had to call a marine specialist in Busan.” Chan might try to exude calm but Jisung could tell he was shit-scared too.

They didn’t know what Hyunjin _was_. _Fuck._ What if they couldn’t work it out in time? What if Hyunjin died and it was all Jisung’s fault. The pain burning in his body amplified, blocking out his other senses one by one until he felt nothing.

Jisung woke up again in the same room, with the same sheet holding him down and the same machines screaming his consciousness to the world. Chan was holding his hand loosely as so not to disturb the tubes connected to it.

“Hyunjin,” Jisung said as soon as Chan leant over him.

“The same,” Chan said sadly. “They’re getting there but it’s slow. You need to stay calm, Sung. You keep burning through the dampers they put on you-”

“I can’t keep _calm!”_ Jisung exclaimed. “Hyunjin is _dying!”_

The third time he woke up Chan answered his question before he could ask it. “They’re flying in the specialist. They’ll treat him soon.”

“Soon??” Jisung asked. “Are they just fucking standing around watching him bleed out?! Where are the fucking staff in this pla-”

The fourth time Jisung woke up Chan wasn’t in the room but when he monitors started going crazy the vampire raced through the door, holding up a hand for Jisung to stop or wait or generally not explode while he finished his phone call.

“Yeah, yeah,” Chan was saying. “Sorry, I have no idea when- I know but- Thanks, I owe y- no, I do. Thank you, Sana. Really. Yeah, speak soon.”

“Noona?” Jisung questioned as Chan hung up. Sana was one of Chan’s many friends. Jisung liked her on her own but got a little intimidated when all _her_ friends were round too. Chan knew all of them and the house got very loud.

Chan shook his head. “I asked her to check on Bin and Innie. I had to leave them with no plan.”

Ah. She was babysitting. Changbin would hate that. “Hyunjin?” he asked. He was scared of the answer. It must have been hours now.

“I don’t know,” Chan admitted helplessly. “The specialist arrived and everyone has been too busy to tell me what’s happening. I don’t know.”

That was better news than it could have been but it didn’t stop Jisung’s mind replaying the horrific image of Hyunjin on the stairs and inventing a hundred terrible outcomes. His heart sped up and a monitor announced it to the room even though Chan would be able to hear it without assistance. “Hyung, I’m gonna-” Jisung warned as best he could before he broke through yet another dampening spell. Whoever was making them was kind of shit at it.

The fifth time Jisung woke up Chan was across the room, by the other bed.

“Hyunjin!” Jisung exclaimed, trying to sit up and see more than the underside of Hyunjin’s chin. Chan was pushing him back to his pillows in an instant.

“Calm, Jisung,” Chan reminded him. “Calm.”

“Why is he not awake?” Jisung asked, feebly fighting back.

“He’s in an induced coma,” Chan explained. “He’s healed but there was no donated blood to match his so he needs more time to heal by himself.

“I need to see,” Jisung protested, pushing Chan’s hands off.

“One minute, baby,” Chan said, holding him down effortlessly. “You’ll pull out your needles.”

“Needles?” Jisung exclaimed. For the first time he worried about himself and looked properly at his hands. “Why are there needles in me?”

Chan must have pressed a button when Jisung wasn’t paying attention because a nurse bustled in and brushed Chan away to check his vitals. She was a strong-looking, serious woman with a tight black bun and Jisung shrunk back into his pillows at the sight of her.

“You have needles, young man, because you repeatedly have a blood sugar of zero and you are all skin and bones.” She said crossly. “I would have sedated you hours ago but your father here was against that. One more burnout and I will sedate you regardless of what he thinks. If I hadn’t seen you break so many dampening spells myself I would think this was neglect.”

“Sorry,” Jisung said. He wasn’t even sure what he was sorry for. For being skinny? For breaking spells accidentally? “Can I see Hyunjin? Please. I need to see him.”

“That’s another one,” the nurse muttered to herself as she adjusted a drip hanging above Jisung. “How someone gets to his age without a medical record is beyond me.”

“Can I please see him,” Jisung asked again before she could go off on a rant about Hyunjin.

“Patience!” she exclaimed, looking down to tut at him. “I didn’t string you up like a christmas tree for nothing. These drips are keeping you awake so you will be quiet and let me transfer them or I will make you quiet, do you understand me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jisung whispered. He sent Chan a panicked look over her shoulder and Chan gave him a small smile. He looked exhausted and Jisung was in half a mind to offer Chan his bed once this woman finally let him out of it.

Eventually, the nurse removed a few monitors and a drip from Jisung (under the promise that he would try very hard to remain calm) and the metal railing on the side of his bed was lowered. He hopped down to the ground and into slippers waiting for him and took his little rack of drips on a shuffle across the room to Hyunjin. Hyunjin had even more wires and tubes attached to him than Jisung. One of his drips was glowing. Jisung crawled carefully onto the chair by his bed, wary not to jostle his drips and leant over to look at Hyunjin.

Hyunjin looked like he was sleeping. Jisung expected bruises because he’d seen the way Hyunjin had fallen but the witches at the hospital must have healed them. They’d shaved his hair too or done the magical equivalent so he must have had a head injury. His head looked fine now though, not even wrapped in gauze. Hyunjin would be sad about losing his hair. He’d worked really hard to get all the tangles out of it without getting it cut short when he first arrived. Changbin had been in the downstairs bathroom with him for hours. Apart from Hyunjin’s head, Jisung could only see his shoulders and arms. The rest of him was under the horribly itchy sheet. If he was staying here for a while Jisung wondered if they could bring him a blanket from home. The one on the couch was soft and would be much nicer than sleeping under a sheet of paper.

“Is he still shifted?” Jisung asked the nurse. She was watching him very carefully. Maybe she’d heard what Jisung did to Hyunjin.

“He still has cephalopod arms in place of legs, yes,” she replied.

 _Just say ‘octopus’, you prick,_ Jisung thought. He didn’t say it though because the nurse was scary. “Won’t his tentacles dry out in the bed?” Jisung asked.

“His arms?” the nurse confirmed.

Jisung rolled his eyes internally. Yes, technically they were arms, Jisung wasn’t an idiot, he knew that. But Hyunjin already _had_ arms so it was illogical to call them arms as well and it’s not like they had to stick to traditional nomenclature when Hyunjin was the first octopus-person anybody in this stupid hospital had ever seen. “Yes,” he said.

“There is a balm on them to retain moisture and a nurse will come around every half hour to sponge them. I don’t suppose you know if it should be salt or fresh water? Your father didn’t.”

“Brackish,” he replied. “More fresh than salt water.” He’d overheard Hyunjin and Jeongin talking about their childhoods and Hyunjin had said he used to live downstream when he was younger, where the crabs were. He’d researched the Han river after that and that meant Hyunjin had grown up in the tidal zone but he clearly was fine in fresh water too. Any water would be better than sewer water but he didn’t tell the nurse that. If she didn’t know that’s where Hyunjin had been living then Jisung wasn’t going to be the one to tell her.

“Brackish,” she repeated. “I’ll have that added to his file. Anything else you can share. He’s been a bit of a mystery around here.”

“He doesn’t like the rain,” Jisung said. “Or dripping sounds. And his suckers attach even if he’s sleeping so you have to be careful. I can do the sponging if you want.”

“I think they found that out during his procedure,” the nurse said dryly. “If you want to do the sponging I’m sure nobody will fight you for it.”

Jisung nodded determinedly. He was the one who hurt Hyunjin so he was going to be the one to make sure he got better.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jisung must be fighting someone at all times, its in his nature

“When did you become a Hyunjin expert?” Chan asked teasingly once the nurse left the room.

Jisung shrugged. He’d always paid attention to Hyunjin. Just nobody paid attention to him. “When did you become my Dad?” he shot back.

Chan pulled a face. “I’m sure I said ‘Guardian’ when you guys were admitted but someone must have passed the information along wrong. So much else was going on there wasn’t time to correct them.”

“It’s fine,” Jisung said. “You are practically my Dad anyway.” He pushed down the warm fuzzy feeling in his chest. If he had a magical burnout because of _love_ he was going to die from embarrassment the second he woke up again. He turned to look back at Hyunjin instead, that should kill any fuzzy feelings. 

It did, but not in the way he wanted it to. Unconscious, Hyunjin was far from the threat Jisung had been seeing him as. He was just a boy with no where to go and a mind that worked against him. Jisung could relate. He related so strongly he had to look away again so he wouldn’t see all the times his hands had reached out to Hyunjin in anger. 

“Are you ok, Sungie?” Chan asked gently.

“I was really mean,” Jisung whispered to the floor. Chan’s hand landed on his head and stroked back his hair.

“You were,” Chan agreed without judgement. “Are you going to change?”

He was.

A much younger nurse fumbled through the door not long later. Jisung knew she was young, not just from her face (which he had learnt could be a red herring in the mystic world), but by how nervous and incompetent she was.

“Is he the..” the nurse gestured uncomfortably at Hyunjin. “boy with the…” 

“Octopus legs?” Jisung guessed, eyeing the spray nozzle bottle in her hand. “Yes. His name is Hyunjin.”

She made a face that was a mixture of relief and apprehension. Jisung was trusting her less with every passing second. Hyunjin was a _patient_ and an unconscious one at that- she shouldn’t be _scared_ to treat him. “Are you the brother?” she asked.

“Yes,” Jisung answered. It’s not like he could answer ‘No, I’m just the kid that likes to push him down the stairs for the sound effects’ and leave _her_ in charge of his care. He preferred the other nurse. She was scary but at least she knew what she was doing. 

This nurse held out the spray bottle to Jisung. “I was told you volunteered. You can spray the bedding too. It’ll get changed out at the end of the day.” The second Jisung’s hand closed around the bottle she turned and rushed off.

“Umm,” Jisung said. Some form of instruction would have been nice. Yes he’d volunteered but it’s not like he had experience.

Chan laughed behind him. “You asked for it, Sung,” he teased. Jisung spun around and sprayed Chan in the face. Chan only laughed harder as Jisung glared at him. “Are you having second thoughts?”

“I can do it,” Jisung said determinedly. At least with a spray bottle he wouldn’t be at risk of getting stuck to Hyunjin’s tentacles. He tugged the sheet at the bottom of Hyunjin’s bed but couldn’t get it free with one hand and the other one still had drips attached. Chan helped, easily peeling the sheet back and folding it over Hyunjin’s chest. 

Hyunjin wore a blue hospital gown that Jisung had somehow been spared from and Jisung hesitantly pushed it up. He was starting to wish he’d just left this to some random nurse but that thought quickly left when he saw Hyunjin’s tentacles were tightly coiled in on themselves. He’d only seen that happen in one situation. 

“Is there a call button?” Jisung asked Chan quickly.

“Yeah?” Chan said, hesitating with his hand over an unassuming switch. 

“Press it,” Jisung said firmly.

“What’s the problem?” the young, useless nurse from earlier asked, casually poking her head into the room. It was an _emergency_ call button, she could at least pretend to be in a rush.

“Hyunjin needs painkillers,” Jisung announced, cutting the bullshit. She didn’t deserve niceties. 

“He’s on painkillers, sweetheart,” she said, coming in to tap a line on the medical chart on the end of Hyunjin’s bed. Jisung looked at it but it all meant nothing to him. When she was gone he’d take it again and google all the fancy terms.

“He needs stronger ones,” Jisung said, pointing to Hyunjin’s coiled tentacles. “He’s in pain.”

When the third medical professional dismissed Jisung’s claims he came very close to losing his cool. He didn’t though because then he’d be in a hospital bed too and nobody would help Hyunjin. Apparently, Hyunjin’s brainwaves and eye movements were fine, indicating no distress, and so they were content to leave him as he was.

“Look,” Jisung said, breathing deeply. “Doctor?”

The person nodded. “Doctor Kang.” They were a siren and kept trying to get Jisung to relax with their sneaky words. Jisung didn’t appreciate it. 

“Doctor Kang,” he said. “I understand that your normal procedures mark Hyunjin as in good care but considering Hyunjin is not a normal patient maybe you should reevaluate.” Jisung could practically feel Chan face-palming behind him but he ignored it. He knew Chan would back him up and bail him out if he needed it. Right now Jisung was, _somehow,_ the Hyunjin expert. “In REM sleep Hyunjin’s tentacles move independently and freely, often curling around solid things in his surroundings. When knocked unconscious his tentacles lie flat. Only when he is in _severe pain_ or mental distress do Hyunjin’s tentacles coil like this. This is not a patient healing. You’ve left him in pain. Fix it.”

The stupid doctor tried to get Jisung to go lie down in his own bed to ‘calm down’ but Jisung was having none of it. He stood by Hyunjin’s bed with his arms crossed (very carefully because he was still attached to various tubes) until they relented and upped the dosage of something. He stayed in that position until they all cleared out of the room and then sat by Hyunjin’s bed, waiting. About ten minutes later the tension in Hyunjin’s coils eased and Jisung was able to gently move them to lie flat, spraying the parts of his tentacles that had been hidden. There was a kind of membrane between each tentacle and it’s neighbours so it almost formed a skirt when they were stretched out. Jisung made sure it was all sprayed down so Hyunjin’s skin wouldn’t dry out. Hopefully he would be better soon because, no matter what Jisung did, a hospital bed was no place for an octopus.

“Is that better, Hyunjin-ssi?” Jisung asked quietly when he was done. He was tired out even though he hadn’t done much more than stand and spray a bottle but the tiredness felt like repentance. It felt good, like he was finally doing the right thing.

“I’m sure Hyunjin feels much better,” Chan assured him. “Why don’t you go lie down, Sungie. I’ll watch him.”

“I-”

“Go have a nap,” Chan encouraged him, shuffling Jisung across the room to his own bed and patting his butt until he climbed in. Chan made sure all his tubes and monitors were all travelling in neat lines and not tangled around his neck and then raced across the room to put down the blinds. “I’ll wake you if anything happens,” he promised. Jisung grumpily held out a pinkie finger. He didn’t want to sleep but his eyes were practically closing on their own. Chan linked their pinkies and pressed their thumbs together. “Promise. Night, Sungie.”

“Night, Dad,” Jisung answered with a giggle. He was still giggling about the absurdity of Chan being his Dad as he fell asleep.


	17. Chapter 17

Jisung was freed of all his tubes and monitors by the end of the next day and deemed only a mild fire hazard going forward. It was suggested that he return home to continue his rest but Jisung quickly, and rudely, declined. He was going nowhere until Hyunjin did. 

Unfortunately, Hyunjin had quite a bit of blood to grow and tissue to mend (and for that Jisung was _really_ sorry) so they were both in hospital for another few weeks. Jisung became possibly the world expert in octopus shifters in that time, reading the results of every scan and test they did on Hyunjin and finding that no such other person had even been admitted anywhere apart from one woman in the 1900’s who, well,... died.

Hyunjin had three hearts, two of which were somewhere near his kidneys and only operated when he was shifted. This was found out after about a week and a half of care when he spontaneously regrew legs and the monitors flatlined. He also had a kind of gill slit that only appeared when shifted, opening between two ribs high on his right side, and blood that was a reddish-purple colour. The colour was a result of two different globins floating about his vascular system in harmony. The doctors could give him more of the nice red haemoglobin humans had to speed up his recovery but they were scared to mess up his shade of purple. Jisung could understand their wariness there- purple was a notoriously difficult colour to get and when it was blood the ratio of blue to red was kind of important. Hyunjin’s tentacles were, surprisingly, the least interesting part of him. They were octopus arms. Fucking massive octopus arms that attached to a human torso but octopus arms all the same. They didn’t react much when he was first put in the coma but slowly Jisung got more response to touch as he made sure they stayed hydrated. He knew octopus could taste with their tentacles and he was pretty sure Hyunjin was recognising the taste of his skin because he would get light suction on his hands when he touched him.

“Hi Hyunjin,” Jisung said when it happened again as he checked on the boy first thing after waking up. “I had a good sleep. Are you having a good sleep? Are you bored yet? I’m kind of bored. I never thought I’d say this but I don’t want to watch YouTube videos today.” Hyunjin didn’t answer but that was ok, Jisung could hold a conversation by himself just fine. “I kind of want to try some healing magic since Doctor Jeon has been explaining how it works but the only ones I could try it on are you and myself. I’m not going to risk a spell on you but I don’t think I have anything that needs healing. These doctors are so confused by you they’re focusing all their efforts into making _me_ healthy. I don’t think I’ve had this little MSG _ever._ I miss ramen. As soon as we get out of here I’m eating like three packets immediately.”

Jisung trailed off as he thought about what would happen when Hyunjin woke up. He hoped Hyunjin would forgive him but he knew that he was well within his rights not to. Changbin and Jeongin seemed to think he would so Jisung just had to wait and do his best to show that he regretted his actions. He didn’t even know if Hyunjin could hear him when he talked to him but it didn’t hurt to try. 

“Hyung said they’re coming at three today. It’s about eleven now so you’ve got time for a quick three-hour nap before Innie is bouncing all over you. Move your arm if you want me to shut up.” He waited a second, watching Hyunjin carefully. Technically Hyunjin had ten arms currently and he did move his tentacles sometimes, though Jisung didn’t think it was a conscious movement. The tentacle closest to his hand flexed slightly, probably more in response to him drumming his fingers on the mattress than his words but he held up his deal. “Alright then, I’ll leave you in peace. I’m going to go find breakfast and shower. I’ll holler when I’m back so if you feel someone before that it’s a nurse being all silent and creepy, not me. See you later!”

Jisung skipped down to the nurses’ desk. They all knew him well by now and inpatients were pretty rare in the mystic part of the hospital so he got away with going all sorts of places that patients probably shouldn’t be allowed.

“Hi Jisungie!” Younghee, a perpetually happy nurse greeted him. “Still in your pyjamas?”

“I am _ill,_ Noona,” Jisung said dramatically. “I am in _hospital._ People in hospital are allowed to stay in their pyjamas.”

“Mmmhmm,” she said with a smile as she flicked through some paperwork. “Last I checked your record said you were cleared to check out.”

“Clerical error,” Jisung replied. He shook his head slowly. “Just can’t seem to get the staff these days.”

“Ahh, clerical error,” Younghee said, playing along. “Should I correct it to have you as a permanent inpatient then? Since you’re so ill you still have to wear pyjamas.”

Oooh she was good. “Best not confuse people any more,” Jisung said. “Leave it as it is and I’ll just leave with Hyunjin. As long as my favourite nurse knows what’s right.” Check. And mate.

Younghee blushed and swatted him away. “Aish, you charmer. What do you want?”

“Coco Pops.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will finish this fic but I may not continue the series as much as I love the world I have created. I'll take some time to decide.


	18. Chapter 18

Jisung was inundated with hugs at 2.55pm. Chan liked to be punctual. 

“Urgh, Dad get _off,”_ Jisung said loudly, squirming but not pushing Chan away.

“Missed you, Sungie,” Chan grinned, poking Jisung in the cheek as he let go. “Have you caused any trouble while we were gone?”

“So much,” Jisung replied. He didn’t get a hug from Jeongin or Changbin because they were all trying to be too cool for that but they grinned at each other secretly.

“We had fried chicken for dinner,” Jeongin said smugly.

“And where’s mine?” Jisung asked, knowing fine well there would have been no leftovers with Chan involved. Jeongin just patted his stomach. “Unbelievable,” Jisung scolded him jokingly. “You’re officially my least favourite brother.”

“Really?” Jeongin asked. “You’ve not even tried to murder me yet.”

“I wasn’t trying to _murder_ Hyunjin,” Jisung sulked. He’d had far too much time to consider his actions and honestly he couldn’t say why he did it. Yes, it had been fun to watch and listen to all the previous times, and he’d wanted Hyunjin _gone_ in that moment, but ‘gone’ was very different from ‘dead’.

“Sorry- maim or seriously injure,” Jeongin corrected himself as he went to stand by Hyunjin’s head. He looked down at the unconscious boy softly and poked him in the cheek. “Any change today?”

Jisung shrugged. “He might have answered when I told him to move if he wanted me to fuck off or he might have just moved.”

“Movement is good though,” Chan said as he read over Hyunjin’s chart with a frown. “Sung what does extrahydro... extrahydra… What does that mean?” he asked, pointing to a line near the bottom of the page. 

“It means I don’t have to spray him so much,” Jisung translated. “He’s been switching to Human during the day mostly. They don’t know why.”

“And this bit?” Chan asked. “Is that a good number?”

Jisung squinted at the form. He had most of it memorised. “Yeah, his blood pressure is up- means he’s got more blood.”

Chan nodded seriously. “Yep, having more blood is a good thing.”

“Says the vegetarian vampire,” Changbin scoffed.

“Respect my lifestyle choices,” Chan shot back gruffly.

“I’m just saying,” Changbin said, holding up his hands in surrender. His words were still weaponised though. “You might benefit from drinking every now and again.”

“Are you _volunteering,_ Binnie?” Chan asked tensely.

“I can do,” Changbin shrugged. “Shall I go ask the nurses about the nutritional requirements for a vampire?” 

Chan glowered. Changbin had him there. If the nurses got wind that Chan didn’t drink they’d probably admit him as well as Jisung and Hyunjin. “Can we focus on Hyunjin please?”

“He’s not squeezing my hand,” Jeongin said quietly. He’d taken the seat next to Hyunjin’s bed and clasped his hand in Hyunjin’s.

Jisung hated seeing Jeongin look so defeated. “Hold on,” he said and skipped over to shut the blinds. “He’s most active at night,” he explained as he went to turn off the light. The room stayed partially lit with so many screens showing Hyunjin’s outputs and the green emergency light glowing overhead. “If we can get him to shift he can taste you with his legs and he’ll recognise you.” 

They watched as Jisung flipped Hyunjin’s sheet off of his legs and carefully sprayed them with the salt water he kept next to Hyunjin’s bed. He’d gotten very good at angling the nozzle just so so that he didn’t drench the whole bed. Jisung tickled a spot just above Hyunjin’s knee. “Come on, Hyunjin-ssi,” he said quietly. “Your favourite person is here. Aren’t you going to say hi?” Nothing. Time to pull out the big guns. He tickled the bottom of Hyunjin’s foot and it flexed, splitting into four along with the other leg. “There we go,” Jisung said proudly. “That wasn’t so hard, was it Hyunjin-ssi?”

“I feel I should be concerned that you’re bullying him in a positive way now,” Chan muttered. Jisung ignored him and offered his fingers to the tiniest suckers on the end of Hyunjin’s tentacles. Hyunjin was very slow to add suction and it was weak but it was there. 

“See, just me,” Jisung told Hyunjin. “Tastes like a little bitch.”

Jeongin was peering over Jisung’s shoulder in interest and Jisung beckoned him closer with his free hand. Hyunjin hadn’t been reactive like this the last time Jeongin was here but it would be good for both of them. 

“Palm up,” Jisung instructed. “There’s more oils on your palms so you’re more recognisable.” He’d done a _lot_ of reading. Jeongin held out his hand and Jisung moved one of Hyunjin’s tentacles over. “See if you can recognise this person, Hyunjin-ssi,” Jisung said just before they made contact. Hyunjin’s tentacle was still slow but it tightened slightly on Jeongin’s hand and Jeongin grinned at Jisung. What he didn’t notice was the second and third tentacle also migrating. Jisung did.

“Hyunjin no,” he said, guiding them back to the bed. “You can’t strangle Innie again.” Hyunjin’s tentacles kept moving. There was a good chance it was unconscious so Jisung couldn’t really blame him and it was good to see such a strong reaction from Hyunjin. He’d never done anything like that with Jisung so surely it was a sign he was ready to wake up.

“Let him,” Jeongin said, sticking his arm over the railing so Hyunjin had more access to his skin. The red limbs inched their way towards him and the tentacle on his hand started winding around his wrist.

“Well, it was nice knowing you, Innie,” Changbin commented. 

“Do you want to say hello too?” Jisung asked him, knowing Changbin would be desperate but would hold back while Innie was having his moment. Hyunjin had eight tentacles and there were plenty to share. “Come around the other side.” He tugged Changbin around to Hyunjin’s opposite side before introducing himself again (to let Hyunjin know it wasn’t nurses) and then giving Changbin a turn. Changbin didn’t get the same reaction as Jeongin and Hyunjin focused a lot more on his palm.

“It tickles,” Changbin commented quietly. 

“Is he sucking on you?” Jisung asked rhetorically. “Were you working this morning? You probably taste like metal.”

“Oh.” Changbin’s mouth formed a tiny circle. “I was messing with brass. It’s pretty reactive for a jewellery metal. You think he can taste that?”

“Definitely,” Jisung replied, giving Hyunjin little rubs along the top of his tentacles. The skin was loose like it was on a real octopus and he’d seen online that aquarium octopuses liked pats like that. “He can tell when the nurses have a needle and he doesn’t like it but he can probably tell this metal is you since he’s touched you before.”

“He reacts well to you,” Changbin noted as the tip of a tentacle curled around Jisung’s pinky.

“I’m just familiar,” Jisung brushed the comment off. He didn’t want to hope that Hyunjin had forgiven him. This was unconscious movement after all. It didn’t reflect Hyunjin’s real feelings. Jisung was only treated positively because he was the one looking after him and not the one that stabbed him with needles. 

While Hyunjin’s tentacles became pretty active with Jeongin there his upper body remained unmoving. There was no flicker of eyes moving under his eyelids, no twitches on his mouth, no jerks of his fingers. Jisung tried not to be disappointed. Hyunjin’s reaction to Jeongin was progress, even the doctor said so. He just had to be patient. Ha. Patient. He was already ‘patient’- Patient Han Jisung, admitted with magic voiding, and he wouldn’t be discharged until Hyunjin was. He’d been patient long enough.

“Did you have a fun day, Hyunjin-ssi?” Jisung asked as he got ready for bed. The nurses here imposed bedtime so he didn’t have much longer to speak to Hyunjin before they would tell him to be quiet. His day had been draining with a long and grueling magic control session after their family left but he wanted to talk to Hyunjin before he slept. It felt important to tell Hyunjin what was happening. “Innie was really happy. Thank you for shifting for him. He’s been really worried about you and Chan was running out of ways to assure him you were fine. If you could wake up too that would be great. School starts up again soon so if you still want to audition for Innie’s school you better hurry up to not miss the start of term. Starting school late sucks- trust me. If you join on the first day everyone is too busy with summer gossip to care about you but if you join later _you_ become the gossip. Anyway, no pressure. I’m sure everyone will love you even if you do turn up in the middle of term so just… get better at your own pace.”

He skipped to Hyunjin’s side of the room once he’d changed into pyjamas and gave his tentacles one last spray down before bed. The bedsheets were also damp for the night so Hyunjin should be fine until a nurse came to change them in the morning. Jisung hung the spray bottle on the railing on Hyunjin’s bed and smoothed the sheet down over him and then the blanket to make sure Hyunin wouldn’t get too cold. He’d done everything but there was a niggling telling him not to go to sleep yet. He couldn’t work out what it was. All Hyunjin’s monitors were showing he was fine. Well, his heart monitor (the main one) was showing his pulse was a little higher than it was earlier but that was fine. His heart was notoriously bad at picking a pace and the doctor hadn’t found any underlying worry with that. It was likely linked to his shifting she’d said, and the blood loss. Jisung needed to stop worrying. His doctor has specifically forbade it. 

He sighed. “Ok, Hyunjin-ssi, I’m going to sleep. See you in the morning. Yell if you need me.”


	19. Chapter 19

Jisung woke in the dark with his heart racing. 

“Jisung,” a raspy voice called and Jisung pulled his legs up, clutching his duvet to his chest. This was how people died in horror films. “Jisung,” the voice called again, more desperate, and Jisung finally recognised it.

“ _Hyunjin?”_ If anything his panic doubled. 

“No, _don’t_ panic,” Hyunjin said quickly. “ _Do not_ fucking pass out on me!” His voice strained and he broke off with a cough that had Jisung leaping across the room to offer him a drink.

“Sorry!” Jisung said as his hands shook and he tipped water down Hyunjin’s chest. “Sorry!”

Hyunjin pushed the cup away after a sip. He looked so much better with his eyes open even if he was frowning irritatedly at Jisung. “Stop panicking. You’ll set something on fire.”

“Sorry!” Jisung said again. He’d planned what to say to Hyunjin when he woke up but now, in the dark of night, it all went out the window. “I’m sorry! I’m really sorry- I didn’t mean-!”

Hyunjin slapped him. Very weakly, to be fair, and it surprised Jisung enough to shut him up which was probably the point. Hyunjin had at least one free hit on Jisung left anyway. “I don’t give a shit right now.” Hyunjin said seriously. “It’s raining and you’re all I’ve got to stop spiraling so just calm the fuck down and distract me.”

“Oh,” Jisung said and glanced back at the blinds. The patter of rain was faint but unmistakable. “We’re too high up for you to get to a door. Do you want to look out the window?”

“I don’t know,” Hyunjin admitted tensely. “I don’t think I can stand up.”

“Like..” _paralysis?_ Jisung’s brain supplied. His heart started racing with fear again and he could feel a magical surge starting. He’d still not quite learnt to stop it without calming down and he wasn’t sure he could right now.

Hyunjin grabbed his hand and squeezed it painfully tight, bringing him back to the room. “ _Jisung._ Like I’m tired and dizzy. Nothing serious. A set of stairs can’t kill me.”

“The chair though-”

“Hurt,” Hyunjin said honestly. “It really hurt. Don’t do that again.”

I won’t!” Jisung quickly promised. “I- are you alright?” Hyunjin’s eyes had half-closed and his hand went limp in Jisung’s.

“I’m really tired,” Hyunjin mumbled. “Why am I so tired if all I’ve done is sleep?”

Jisung had a lot of answers to that but he had a feeling Hyunjin wouldn’t appreciate the science or the humour right now. “Go back to sleep,” he offered.

“Can’t,” Hyunjin said but his eyes had already closed. “Rain.”

“I’ll watch the rain for you,” Jisung offered though he couldn’t see it from Hyunjin’s bedside. He would be awake all night now regardless. He carefully set Hyunjin’s hand back on the bed and folded the blanket so the wet part from his spill wasn’t touching Hyunjin. The blanket shifted as he did. Hyunjin’s tentacles had started to wander, a sign he was asleep again. They latched onto the railing of the bed and one tightened around Jisung’s wrist as he tried to adjust the blanket again.

“Ok, Hyunjin,” Jisung told the tentacle. “I’m staying, it’s ok.” He crawled into the chair by Hyunjin’s bed with his hand held over the bed awkwardly and then slowly encouraged the tentacle to let him bring his hand to a comfortable position. When he could relax he gave the back of the tentacle a rub. “I’ll look after you.”

Jisung wished he had his phone to take notes but it was across the room so he’d just have to try and memorise an apology. Hyunjin had said he didn’t care but that was probably only because of the rain. Jisung was sure when he woke up in the sunny daytime he’d be out for revenge. He hoped it was something quick, like a punch, because if Hyunjin tried his mind games again Jisung would end up setting fire to something again and he was _tired._ Tired of trying to hold his magic down, tired of trying to stay impassive, tired of waking up shaky and dizzy. 

The morning nurse was different today, one of the nice ones. He peered into their room at 6am when his shift started and raised an eyebrow at Jisung.

“Not like you to be up, Jisungie. Everything all right?”

Jisung lifted his arm as best he could to show of the living bracelet clamped along his forearm. “Hyunjin woke up. He’s scared of rain so I came over so he wasn’t alone.”

“Aww.” The nurse looked at them fondly. “You two are so cute.” _Had he not read their files? It pretty clearly said that Jisung pushed Hyunjin for him to end up in this condition._

“Sure,” Jisung said sceptically. “When he decks me later give me the good pain medication.”

The nurse laughed and came over to check on Hyunjin. “I’m sure whatever you guys fought about is all water under the bridge now,” he assured Jisung. “You’ve been by his side for weeks- if my brother managed that dedication I’d forgive him.”

“I told our Dad to get rid of him,” Jisung admitted. “I didn’t like that he just showed up and everyone would bend over backwards to help him. Like, if he needed all this help why wasn’t he with the Council or something?”

“The Council is not always the best place for vulnerable people, especially shifters,” the nurse said quietly. Jisung wondered what he was. Maybe he was a shifter too and was speaking from experience. “Your Dad taking in Hyunjin was probably the best thing that could have happened to him.

“Yeah,” Jisung said quietly. It had certainly been the best thing that could have happened to Jisung and Chan had been a bit of a mess himself at that time. He couldn’t deny that living with Chan was a truly healing experience and looking at Hyunjin now… healing was something he needed.

“I’ll be back around when breakfast is ready,” the nurse said, marking some change on Hyunjin’s chart. “Press the button if your brother wakes up. We’ll need to run some checks to be sure he’s healing well.” He reached over and ruffled Jisung’s hair. “And stop looking so worried. I’m sure everything is going to be fine.”

That was easy for him to say- he’d never pushed Hyunjin down the stairs. Jisung had. Jisung had _so_ many times. It just made such a good noise.

“Since when have we been related?” Hyunjin asked, unwinding his tentacles carefully from Jisung’s wrist. 

Jisung jumped and a tiny flame sparked on his palm, only to die on the damp bed sheets. “Since when have you been awake?”


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they're _bonding_

Jisung jumped and a tiny flame sparked on his palm, only to die on the damp bed sheets. “Since when have you been awake?”

“Since a while ago,” Hyunjin said dismissively. He propped himself up on his elbows. “Maybe. I don’t know. That’s not the point! Since when have we been related?”

“Since we got here,” Jisung replied. And probably quite a bit longer before that if Jisung was being really truthful to himself. “Hyung claims he told the staff he was just our Guardian but he has a bad habit of saying ‘my kids’ so we are now officially known to the staff as The Bang Brothers.” He said the words quickly, ignoring the fear of Hyunjin’s response rising in his chest. He even threw up a peace sign to lighten the mood. It very much _did not_ lighten the mood.

Hyunjin squinted up at him. “And you _let_ them think that?”

“I mean, we, uh,” Jisung fiddled with his sleeves nervously and only when he smelled the arid scent of burning plastic did he ball his hands into fists and stand straight. He wasn’t going to pass out again. He _wasn’t._ “We _are_ brothers. I know you don’t like me and I don’t like you but we are brothers now. And I’m sorry for pushing you down the stairs and hurting you so bad but you said- you said- you said-” The words wouldn’t leave his mouth. Even the memory of them was too strong. Magic bubbled in his veins and he could feel the heat of his blue flames on the backs of his hands even though it didn’t hurt. Now would be the time to call a nurse because he was definitely going to need glucose fast in approximately thirty seconds.

“Fuck,” Hyunjin said as he noticed and _grabbed_ Jisung’s hand. “ _Fuck!_ Ow!”

“ _What did you do that for?”_ Jisung exclaimed hysterically, pulling his burning fists out of Hyunjin’s reach.

“I’m trying to calm you down!” Hyunjin said, weakly pushing himself up to sitting. “ _God,_ put the fire out and stop panicking- I’m not mad at you!”

“AHH!” Jisung said. It wasn’t his proudest moment. He had meant to say something along the lines of ‘You can’t just tell a panicking person to stop panicking!’ and ‘how the fuck are you not mad at me I nearly fucking killed you!’ but those two thoughts didn’t meld well with the additional effort needed to keep his magic flying out of his hands.

“Jisung,” Hyunjin said sternly, reaching out with his hand towards Jisung’s face. Jisung flinched and the world went black.

***

“Hey, are you awake?” Hyunjin said rudely from across the room. “I can see you moving.” 

Jisung was awake but only just and his head was pounding. He’d passed out again. The benefit of passing out in hospital though was that the treatment was a lot more sophisticated than a needle in the leg and he tended not to want to throw up the same.

“What do you want?” Jisung grumbled, curling in on himself to look down his bed at Hyunjin. Sitting up straight away right now would not end well.

Hyunjin was propped up against his pillows, happily eating watermelon cubes. “To check you’re not dead,” Hyunjin replied around a mouthful of watermelon. “Why did you have to panic like that? I didn’t do anything.”

“If I could control it it wouldn’t be called ‘panic’ would it?” Jisung said icily. He hadn’t had a magical outburst in over a week and he’d forgotten how shitty he felt after them. He liked Hyunjin better asleep.

“Yeah, ok,” Hyunjin agreed easily. Far too easily. He was up to something. “Can you not panic for like five minutes while I talk to you though?”

“I dunno if I feel like it,” Jisung replied, straightening up to lie staring out the window. He could only see sky from this angle but it was still a better view than Hyunjin. “ _Apparently,_ people only pretend to be nice to me so I stop blowing shit up.”

Hyunjin sighed. “That’s what I want to talk about. That was out of line and a lie. I’m sorry. I should never have said that to you.” Jisung hadn’t expected that and honestly, he was a little bit relieved. He’d worried that maybe Hyunjin’s words held some truth and if he’d asked Chan about it Chan would deny it outright, regardless if it was true or not but if Hyunjin was saying it was a lie then it had to be. Hyunjin would never lie to Jisung to make him feel better so what he said just now must be true. It was an awkward logic to follow but it put Jisung’s mind at ease. His family _did_ love him as much as they showed it.

“Sorry I pushed you,” Jisung mumbled back.

“You said that already,” Hyunjin replied. “I forgive you. I know you didn’t mean for me to get hurt.”

“I wanted you to be a little bit hurt,” Jisung admitted quietly.

“I wanted you to be a little bit hurt too,” Hyunjin said easily. “But I hurt you a lot and you hurt me a lot and now I think we’re even. Can we have a truce? The doctor said you were getting a lot better before I woke up.”

“Which doctor?” Jisung asked, raising his head so Hyunjin could see him narrowing his eyes. “I’ll fuck them up.”

“Well, now I’m not telling you,” Hyunjin replied with a grin. He was so _annoying._ “She also said you yelled at everyone on the first day that they weren’t looking after me right and made sure my octopus legs were ok this whole time.”

Jisung slid back down to his pillow and hid his face. “Well, the idiots here had no idea how to treat you,” he grumbled. “Someone had to explain it all and Channie-hyung was fucking useless.”

“Thank you,” Hyunjin said simply.

“No problem,” Jisung replied. That was the first civil (or mostly civil) conversation he’d ever had with Hyunjin and it felt... _good._ “Did they say when you could be released?” he asked after a moment.

Hyunjin pulled a face and set aside his empty pot of watermelon. “They really want to run more tests now I’m awake but I got the impression it was more circus freak testing than medical testing so I said I wanted to wait for you to wake up first.” Hyunjin had always been incredibly perceptive and Jisung was pleased to hear that his head trauma hadn’t affected that.

“What kinda tests?” Jisung asked, slowly sitting up to face Hyunjin. 

“EGT?” Hyunjin said uncertainly. “EMG? Some brain scan. There were a couple types. And they wanted to monitor a bunch of stuff while I shift even though I said I can’t do it on command.”

“You can do it on command though,” Jisung said. He’d watched it happen.

Hyunjin shot him a look. “ _No. I. Can’t,”_ he said pointedly and jabbed his chopstick in the direction of the hallway.

“Oh yeah, my bad.” Jisung agreed with a nod. “You can’t. The brain scans I can search up,” he offered. “I think one of them checks like blood flow to find if you have any part of your brain that’s died or something. You seem fine but that would probably be a good idea.” Jisung was genuinely relieved to realise that but he couldn’t celebrate their good luck because _life_ just kept happening.

“So do I agree to the tests?” Hyunjin asked.

“They shouldn’t be able to do anything without Channie-hyung’s consent,” Jisung told him. ‘Shouldn’t’ being the keyword.

“Because he’s our Dad?”

“Because he’s our Dad.” Jisung confirmed. If someone told one-month-ago-Jisung he’d be saying that to Hyunjin he would have thought _he_ had been the one with brain trauma.

“So, on a scale of Nap to Explosion where are you right now?” Hyunjin asked next. “Just so I know how much to fuck with you with the next topic of conversation.” Ok, that was kind of rude but also admittedly pretty funny. Maybe Jisung should have tried having a conversation with Hyunjin before now.

“If it’s a scale I just oscillate wildly between the two extremes,” Jisung replied. “I am incapable of existing in the normal range of stability.”

“Mood,” Hyunjin said. “I’m half-octopus and I’m scared of water.”

“We’re a fucking mess,” Jisung said proudly. 

Hyunjin laughed. “We are.”


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is so much dialogue in this chapter im sorry

By the time Chan was notified of Hyunjin’s consciousness (and Jisung’s unconsciousness) by the hospital staff and travelled to the hospital to see them the two boys had reached an unprecedented level of friendship.

“What?” Chan asked, stopping dead in the doorway to their room with a dumbfounded expression. He’d forgotten to dress like a human again and came wearing a big fluffy black hoodie… in mid-August.

“Sup, Dad,” Jisung said with a grin.

“How?” Chan tried next. “Why?”

“I think we broke him,” Hyunjin whispered conspiritarily in Jisung’s ear. 

“Turn him off and on again?” Jisung suggested.

“Since when-?” Chan was slowly cycling through all the questioning words without actually forming a single question. He only had ‘Where’ and Who’ left. 

“Do you need to lie down?” Jisung asked, pointing across the room to his empty bed. Hyunjin giggled quietly beside him. It felt just as good making Hyunjin laugh as it had pushing him down the stairs (sans chair).

Chan rubbed his eyes as if he didn’t quite trust what he was seeing. If he’d been awake as long as Jisung thought he had, there was a very good chance what Chan was seeing _wasn’t_ real but Jisung sitting in Hyunjin’s bed next to Hyunjin? -that bit was real. “Are you _friends_ now?” Chan asked, astonished.

“Ehhh,” Hyunjin said, pulling a face.

“Let’s not go too far,” Jisung hurried to say at the same time. They were, undeniably, cuddled under the same blanket though, and Jisung would, without hesitation, fight a nurse on Hyunjin’s behalf. He’d actually fought quite a few already but that hadn’t been today.

“So…?” Chan asked. “Were there not enough electrical outlets on your side of the room?”

“The view is actually better from this bed,” Jisung said instead of explaining how painfully dumb he and Hyunjin had realised they were being. “I can see when the dinner lady is coming _and_ if you lean at just the right angle-” he demonstrated “-you can see the helicopter out the window when it takes off.”

“I think Jisung is bullshitting about the helicopter,” Hyunjin informed Chan. “I’ve not seen it once and I’ve been sitting here since before he woke up.”

“It’s about the _angle_ , Hyunjin,” Jisung said exasperatedly.

“It’s about the _internal bleeding_ , Jisung,” Hyunjin shot back. Jisung was never going to hear the end of this. Hyunjin didn't even have internal bleeding anymore- the doctor had checked.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Chan interrupted them just as they were about to get a good argument started. “Hyunjin- internal bleeding?”

“Oh, no.” Hyunjin said with a friendly grin. “The doctors are like eight-five percent sure I’m completely fine. As far as they can tell all my blood is where it’s supposed to be _and_ I have enough of it. Probably. There was a lot of mumbling.”

“They have no idea what they’re talking about, Channie-hyung,” Jisung piped up. “Don’t allow them to do any extra tests until I’ve googled them.”

“You know I have two biology degrees, right?” Chan said. “I feel like I’m more qualified to make those decisions.”

“Yeah, well, those idiots have doctorates- doctorates from this century- and they’re still idiots so you’re going to run it by me and google first.”

“Yeah ok,” Chan said in defeat. He sat on the end of their bed. “Who is most ill currently?”

“Him,” both of them said, pointing at the other.

“You were in a coma this morning!” Jisung protested Hyunjin’s claim.

“You were unconscious an hour ago!” Hyunjin refuted. “You turned all your blood sugar into fire and fell out the chair.”

“I do that all the time!” Jisung argued. 

“That doesn’t make it healthy!”

“Forget I asked,” Chan sighed. “I might just tell the hospital to keep the pair of you at this rate.”

“No, please,” Jisung begged. “There are so many vegetables. Take me home, please. I want ramen.”

“Vegetables?” Hyunjin said in horror. “No. I want to go home too. Channie-hyung, tell them I’m fine.”

“Are you fine?” Chan asked. 

“Like, eighty-five percent fine. Probably.”

“Tired? Headache? Pain?” Chan asked. “Feeling of impending doom?”

“What the fuck?” Jisung muttered at the last one. 

“Symptom of a heart attack,” Chan explained. “I just like the wording- ‘ _Impending DOOM.”_ And people wondered why Jisung was strange.

“All my hearts are fine,” Hyunjin reported, slapping his chest and his sides above each hip. “Two aren’t pumping currently but that’s normal. And I’m on pain meds,” he added, holding up his hand, “so I don’t even know what pain is right now.”

“Me either!” Jisung crowed, holding up his own drip hand. THe nurse had found it easier to locate a vein in his right hand which was perfect because it meant his trolley of drips could stand the opposite side of the bed to Hyunjin’s.

“That explains a lot,” Chan muttered. “I’m going to go find you guys’ doctor. Please don’t do anything while I’m gone.”

“Like what?” Hyunjin asked. “Jisung can’t push me out the bed because there’s a guard rail.”

“I could _try,”_ Jisung said. As _if_ he would be defeated by a tiny guard rail.

“NO,” Chan said. “Sit still until I come back and I’ll sneak you cup ramen tomorrow if I can’t get Hyunjin cleared today.”

“One each?” Jisung clarified, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. It would be just like Chan to make him share with Hyunjin.

“Yes, one each,” Chan said. He rounded the edge of the bed and pressed a kiss to Jisung’s cheek. “You menace.” He leaned around Jisung and reached out to squeeze Hyunjin’s hand. “I’m so glad you’re ok, Hyunjinnie.”

“What about me!” Jisung called after him as Chan left the room. “Yo, DAD! Bitch, love me!”


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had a couple versions of this chapter but this is by far the funniest one

JEONGIN POV

There had to be something weird in the hospital food. There was no other explanation for how _friendly_ Jisung and Hyunjin were being to each other. They’d come home from the hospital at lunch time and hadn’t stopped laughing together since. Jeongin was actually getting a bit creeped out by it. 

He’d planned that once Hyunjin got home he would teach him about the audition to get into his school. He’d even made notes and searched up pictures to show him but Jisung was taking all of Hyunjin’s attention. As glad as he was that they were… not trying to murder each other anymore, he felt it was his duty as a SOPA alumni to help Hyunjin pass the audition that was looming ever closer. He worked through this argument with himself in his room and built up the courage to stride into the living room to tell Hyunjin his plan but the sight of him and Jisung giggling made him panic and he stopped awkwardly in the middle of the room.

“Hey, Innie,” Jisung said cheerfully. “Want to join us?” They were watching some sort of drama, an old one by the looks of it.

“Hyunjin needs to practice for school,” Jeongin blurted out. He’d meant to phrase it much better than that. He’d wanted to sound like he was being helpful the same way Hyunjin had helped him with schoolwork but it just sounded like he was a grumpy parent ruining all the fun. Thankfully, Hyunjin and Jisung didn’t seem to mind.

“Oh yeah!” Jisung said, turning to Hyunjin excitedly. “You need to audition for Innie’s school. You’re just in time- term starts again next week.”

Jeongin pulled a face. Jisung could be excited about it because he didn’t have to go. It wasn’t a bad school and the specialised art lessons were actually a lot of fun but that didn’t mean Jeongin was thrilled about the whole experience. He would like to be home-schooled with Jisung instead but his school was the only reason he was allowed to stay with Chan in the first place and if he pulled out he’d be back down to Busan. That was definitely the worst option so he’d just have to stick with it for a few more years until he was free to make his own life choices. He was sure Chan would employ him regardless of his grades if he asked so he wasn’t even that motivated to aim for more than a pass in most subjects.

Hyunjin seemed like he would be a nerd though which is why Jeongin wanted to make sure he had a good audition. If Hyunjin didn’t get in perhaps Chan would send him to a different school and Hyunjin was just weird enough to get bullied despite his pretty face. Jeongin wanted him close by where he’d at least have a friendly face at lunch. He might be able to convince some of the nicer kids in the year above to look out for Hyunjin in class too because he had a feeling school was going to completely baffle the other boy.

“I have to sing, right?” Hyunjin asked. “I think I can sing ok.”

“You’ll have an academic proficiency test- maths, korean, science, shit like that.” Jeongin explained. “And then yeah, singing, dancing, acting, playing instruments. I sang and played the piano and they made me do a free-style dance.” He winced at the memory. It was possible one of the most embarrassing moments of his life but thankfully it had been over quickly. He just hoped the administration deleted the tape once he was admitted because he wanted that disaster to never see the light of day again. 

“I can play the piano,” Hyunjin revealed and Jisung pulled his head back to look at Hyunjin in confusion.

“There’s a piano in the sewers?”

Hyunjin rolled his eyes. “I’ve lived in a house too, you idiot.”

“With a _piano?”_ Jisung asked sceptically. “Like a real one?”

“Yeah,” Hyunjin said, not understanding Jisung’s line of questioning. Jeongin was starting to get an idea though. “It was a big black one,” Hyunjin continued, indicating it’s approximate size with his hands. “It was by the window that looked over the river.”

Jisung sent Jeongin a pointed look. Ok, it appeared that Joengin should have asked more questions about Hyunjin’s past because it was _even more interesting_ than he’d realised.

“CHAN-HYUNG!” Jisung yelled loudly and Chan came sprinting into the room in seconds, panic in his eyes. When he saw everything was fine he skidded to a halt and clutched his chest though his heart had long stopped beating. 

“Don’t _do_ that, Jisung!” Chan gasped. 

“What?” Jisung asked.

“Last time you said that you were both kinda, um, nearly dead,” Jeongin explained, indicating Jisung and Hyunjin. He'd been more confused than anything at the time, not really understanding what had happened since Chan had moved Hyunjin from the bottom of the stairs by the time he came out of his room but it made sense that Chan had some pretty vivid memories of it.

“Oh,” Jisung said quietly. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Chan sighed. “What did you call me for?” 

Changbin appeared at the door too, having rushed at a pace much slower than Chan to Jisung’s call and he came to sit by Hyunjin. Jeongin realised he had been standing the whole time but it felt awkward to move now so he just slowly sunk to sit on the floor.

“Hyunjin’s Aunt and Uncle,” Jisung said. “Were they loaded?”

“Huh?” Hyunjin said. 

“Rich,” Changbin explained quietly, patting Hyunjin’s hand.

“Oh yeah, so rich,” Chan said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Riverside private home rich.”

“I knew it!” Jisung punched the air. He turned to Hyunjin. “Dude, you had a grand piano. They’re like a hundred million won.”

“That sounds like a lot,” Hyunjin said innocently.

“It is a lot!” Jisung exclaimed. “That’s like- like- one hundred thousand cup ramens.”

Hyunjin’s eyes went wide. “Just for the piano?”

“Just for the piano,” Jisung confirmed. Jeongin had no idea where Jisung was pulling these numbers from but Chan wasn’t correcting him so they must be at least kind of accurate. Changbin pulled out his phone and typed something in.

“So if you ate one cup ramen a day every day it would take you two hundred and seventy-four years to finish them.” He calculated.“That’s longer than Channie-hung has been alive.”

“Wow,” Hyunjin breathed.

Jisung had issues with Changbin’s calculation however. “Who only eats one cup ramen a day?”

“Who eats one _every single day_ for nearly _three hundred years?”_ Changbin shot back.

“I would!” Jisung said. “I’ll start right now!”

 _“NO,”_ Chan vetoed loudly. “You need real food.” Jisung looked at him judgmentally. “I’m _dead_!” Chan exclaimed. “I’m allowed to have a bad diet!”


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a double length chapter, i hope you like it

Chan borrowed a keyboard from a friend for Hyunjin to practice with and after a few attempts an entire classical piece just _flowed_ from Hyunjin’s fingers. Jeongin tried very hard not to be jealous because he always clunked his way through a new piece and only managed to play it all the way through when luck was with him. It was the only piece Hyunjin remembered though and his sight reading wasn’t great so Jeongin took solace in that. And he _did_ want Hyunjin to pass his audition so really it was _good_ that Hyunjin was better than him. He was supposed to be going into the year above after all.

The singing part of the audition was fine too. Chan taught Hyunjin how to properly sing his scales and then they picked a pop song that matched his range well. Jeongin could really have helped there too but everyone in the house could sing and Chan had a music degree, even if it was older than saxophones, so Jeongin faked having vacation homework to finish and left the others to the singing. Hyunjin’s singing voice was lovely. Jeongin could hear it from their room even when Hyunjin was practicing downstairs and he was sure the song would be a hit with the assessors. Who would be able to resist Hyunjin staring endearingly at them as he sang a love song in English? Certainly not Jeongin. He was upstairs for a reason.

Next came the unplanned part of the audition. Would they ask Hyunjin to dance? Or to act? Changbin took up the dancing tuition, showing Hyunjin a set of basic moves he’d learnt from Terra knows where and then a couple of pop song choreos. It wasn’t perfect but it was good enough and while Jeongin knew more about the technique of dance he didn’t think he could demonstrate any better. He was notoriously clumsy and he’d probably just injure Hyunjin if he tried to help. Jisung helped with the acting- another area Jeongin wasn’t confident in. Jisung could do a whole range of impersonations and had Hyunjin laughing for hours. Jeongin wasn’t sure if they got any real practice in but Hyunjin was happier and more confident which Jeongin had been told was half the battle with acting so he’d probably be ok.

The only area Jeongin really excelled in was the school itself and he patiently answered Hyunjin’s questions every night in the dark before they went to sleep. The questions ranged from the coursework to the layout of the school to the dinner room menu to the best teachers and the nicest students. Jeongin did his best to prepare Hyunjin without scaring him and Hyunjin had seemed happy with it until the morning of his audition when he was miraculously awake before Jeongin.

“Are you alright?” Jeongin asked. Hyunjin was curled up in his duvet, staring out the window.

“I can’t do it,” Hyunjin said quietly. “Sorry.”

Jeongin sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes to see Hyunjin properly. “What do you mean you can’t do it? You practiced lots- you can definitely pass.”

Hyunjin shook his head. “I’m scared. I can’t- I can’t go out there. What if I shift?”

“Then you shift back,” Jeongin said. “Chan can fix it if any of the humans see. Not by himself, obviously, but he knows people. You’re good at controlling your shifts now though. You can stay human when it rains now.”

“When I’m _inside.”_ Hyunjin said. “And you’re here. What if I have P.E. or something and it rains while I’m outside?”

“They never make us do P.E. in the rain,” Jeongin said. It was a little bit of a lie. They were never sent out in the rain but sometimes a rain shower caught the teacher by surprise. “The girls complain about it ruining their hair so P.E. is inside if it rains. You won’t ever have to be outside in the rain and I’ll be at school too, yeah? If it rains at lunch time or something and you get stuck somewhere I can come find you.”

Hyunjin still didn’t look convinced. Jeongin realised that he’d wrapped his duvet around himself because he was already shifted from how nervous he was. That wasn’t a good sign.

“But what if I shift in class or in the corridor?” Hyunjin asked. “You said the corridors get really busy! If I shift then everyone will see.”

Jeongin didn’t have a good answer for that beyond ‘Chan will fix it’ and that answer hadn’t convinced Hyunjin yet. “It’ll be ok,” he said instead. “You survived the river and the sewers and _Jisung-hyung_. High school is going to be easy, I promise.”

“Promise,” Hyunjin said, holding out his pinky. He’d only learnt that when he moved in with them. He’d learnt a lot, now Jeongin thought about it, in a very short period of it.

Jeongin climbed out of bed and went to sit down next to Hyunjin. He linked their pinkies and pressed their thumbs together. “Promise.” Then he pulled apart Hyunjin’s duvet to hug him. That always helped Hyunjin. Hyunjin squeezed him tight and Jeongin felt the smooth tentacles start to wind around his legs as he sat there. “No, Hyunjin, he said firmly.

“It just happens,” Hyunjin protested, hugging him still.

“Let go and shift back,” Jeongin told him. Hyunjin held him tighter. “Shift back or I turn into a fox and bite you,”Jeongin warned. It wasn’t an idle threat.

***

Hyunjin walked into his audition both confident and petrified with a bite wound on his thigh hidden under his trousers. The rest of them waited, equally confident and petrified, on the benches in the hallway outside. It was odd for Jeongin to be back at school a week early, in casual clothes with his family instead of his classmates and teachers, but he couldn’t focus much on that. He couldn’t focus much on anything besides praying that Hyunjin was ok. Jeongin didn’t even care if Hyunjin failed or passed as long as he was ok. He didn’t know how he would take it if Hyunjin broke down and shifted because Jeongin had put too much pressure on him to go to school. And he’d promised. He’d promised it would be ok.

“It’s taking forever,” Jisung muttered, fidgeting in his seat. “Why are they taking so long?”

"Be pat-" Changbin started and then suddenly the door to the practice room swung open and Hyunjin stumbled up and into Chan's arms.

"Channie-hyung, am I in care?" Hyunjin asked breathlessly, clutching at Chan's hoodie. "She asked and I said I didn't know and I was the same as Innie but she said that I can't be because Innie has parents and I don't and she said that kids that are in care aren't allowed at this school so if I'm in care in not allowed and I didn't know so she wants you."

"Woah, woah," Chan said gently, running circles on Hyunjin's back. "Deep breaths Jinnie, it's alright."

"But am I in care?" Hyunjin asked again. "She said if you only started looking after me recently and you're not related to me then I'm probably not adopted and I can only go to this school if I'm adopted."

"Her face is going to adopt the imprint of my fist," Jisung grumbled and Changbin had to make him relax his hands before he set fire to Jeongin's nice expensive school.

"You're adopted," Chan said, kissing Hyunjin's forehead. "3RACHA is your permanent home as long as you want it to be. I don't have the human paperwork for it right now but I can get it sorted, don't worry."

"Forever," Hyunjin mumbled. "I want to stay forever."

"Then you can stay forever," Chan said easily. "Now go sit with Binnie for a minute. I need to have a word with that woman regarding her conduct with vulnerable persons." And with that he pulled open the door and strode into the practice room.

"Do you think Channie-hyung is going to eat her?" Jisung whispered. He was holding hands with Changbin and so was Hyunjin. Jeongin felt a little left out but he didn't want to say so and get smothered. This wasn't about him anyway.

"Worse," Changbin whispered back. "He's going to use big words."

"How long will that take?" Hyunjin asked desperately. "I need to shift."

Jeongin looked over at him and he looked intensely uncomfortable, wriggling in his seat as if he was about to shit himself.

"Just hold it ten minutes," Changbin said. "Channie-hyung won't be long."

I can't wait ten minutes," Hyunjin whined. "I need to hide."

Jeongin looked at Hyunjin and then at the closed door of the practice room and made a decision. "Come with me."

He took Hyunjin by the hand and they ran down the corridor to the toilets. It was a little exhilarating to be running in school as well as all the other weird things happening that day. The toilets were individual stalls, walled off from each other with real walls and a big heavy wooden door because their school had the money for that kind of thing. Jeongin pulled open a door and shoved Hyunjin in before him and locked the door behind them.

"Strip," Jeongin command, kicking off his own shoes. The toilet hadn't been used in over a month and was well cleaned so Jeongin decided to risk standing on the floor without shoes. Hyunjin clearly wasn't thinking that advancedly and undid his belt to push his trousers down just in time for his shift.

"No, don't touch the _floor,"_ Jeongin said, trying to haul Hyunjin up into his arms. Hyunjin looped his arms around Jeongin's neck and found his way under Jeongin's t-shirt to anchor strongly.

"I've touched worse," Hyunjin said lazily as he moved to Jeongin's back. He was much more relaxed in this form. Jeongin empathised, he really did, but this was not the place or time for tentacles. Sometimes he wondered what Hyunjin was feeling when his tentacles started going on their own little side quests like this. He said they kind of did their own thing but surely he had to have some idea that one was headed for the toilet bowl. Jeongin slapped it away.

"Not the _toilet_. Shift back. You're such a hazard like this."

"Don't wanna," Hyunjin replied. The toilet-seeking tentacle changed course though and wrapped around Jeongin's arm.

"We need to leave again," Jeongin said. "I only brought you here to switch trousers so you wouldn't rip those ones _if_ you shifted."

"So I wear these ones," Hyunjin asked, several tentacles pushing their way under the waistband of Jeongin's sweatpants and down his legs.

"Not while I'm still in them!" Jeongin exclaimed, hauling Hyunjin back out again.

***

They raced back to the practice room after switching clothes and Chan was outside waiting for them. He smiled when he saw them and Jeongin knew everything would be ok.

“You passed, Hyunjinnie,” Chan said when they got close. “You’re going to school!”

Hyunjin dropped three feet. Hopefully, if anybody else was watching it would just look like his knees had given way from relief... and in a way they had. Octopuses don’t have knees.

Chan laughed and scooped Hyunjin off the floor. The sweatpants Hyunjin had borrowed from Jeongin were bulging weirdly but they held together and somehow Hyunjin had managed to keep his shoes on. Jeongin was more impressed by that than Hyunjin passing his audition.

“I’m going to school,” Hyunjin said in wonder. “This is my school. I’m going to _school._ ”

“It’s not _that_ great,” Jeongin muttered from behind him but he was kind of excited to show Hyunjin around next week. “Can you get your legs back already- I want to leave.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so we're nearing the end now and wow has it been a ride writing this. it might be just one more chapter or it might be ten idk im not good at planning in advance


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it might seem a bit sudden but this is the last chapter

Hyunjin’s first day at school was a weird day for Jeongin and that was saying something because Jeongin had spent many years as the weird kid at his old school. This time it was weird because the extra attention he was getting was positive. He’d expected a couple of people to ask him about Hyunjin- any new kid was good gossip- but he hadn’t expected strangers to come up to him to get what was frankly deeply personal information on his friend.

They’d agreed a semi-fake backstory for Hyunjin to have so they could glaze over the ‘not-entirely-human’ part of the tale but it wasn’t full-proof yet and Jeongin hoped Hyunjin was managing to keep his story straight because it seemed like the gossip mill was in full swing. Jeongin was mostly answering with ‘why do you need to know?’ and ‘that’s none of your business’ but still rumours were flying. He hadn’t managed to get Hyunjin alone at lunch either to find out which rumour was the ‘truth’. The one about Hyunjin being a lost Prince that had been living in America was definitely fake though. Hyunjin was far more beautiful than any inbred prince would be.

At the end of the day he made a bee-line for Hyunjin’s class and dragged the other boy away from his fans towards the gate. Hyunjin’s classmates still followed but once they got down the street most of them should peel away to climb into their private cars and by the time they got to the subway they should be alone.

“Did you have a good day, Innie?” Hyunjin asked brightly, swinging their joined hands between them. Jeongin hadn’t meant to hold his hand but he guessed he was now. If he let go of Hyunjin they’d never get out of the building.

“Not really,” Jeongin answered honestly. He’d been distracted worrying about Hyunjin all day _and_ he had been given a pile of assessments to start. On the _first day._

Hyunjin pouted. “That’s not good. Why did you have a bad day?”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Jeongin said, sparing a glance behind them. There were still huddles of girls following them. “Just got a lot of homework.”

“Me too!” Hyunjin said. “I’ve never had homework before. You’ll need to help me get it right.”

“Sure,” Jeongin said distractedly as he took them on a shortcut through a fire door that never alarmed. “Wait- no. You’re the year above me. I can’t do your homework.” He didn’t even understand his own homework yet.

“You’re smart though, Innie,” Hyunjin said cutely, squeezing his hand. “Help me. Please?”

Jeongin was about to refuse again when a very familiar voice froze him in his tracks.

“Inniejinnieinniejinnieinniejinnieinnie- !” Jisung was cut off by Changbin slapping his arm but it was too late. People were already staring at the two boys very clearly not in uniform standing at the gates. It didn’t help that Jisung had been yelling loud enough for the whole courtyard to hear.

“Kill me now,” Jeongin muttered under his breath and dragged Hyunjin forward with renewed fervour. He grabbed Changbin’s sleeve as he passed and kept striding for the subway, hoping Changbin would have the sense to take Jisung with him.

“Hey!” Jisung called from behind him. “What’s got you upset, Innie? Did you have a bad day?”

“One brother for the school to gossip about is quite enough, thank you,” Jeongin said primly, not slowing his pace.

“Oooh, people were gossiping about Hyunjinnie?” Jisung asked. “ _Told you_ that would happen,” Jeongin heard him say smuggly to Hyunjin. They were past fighting but not past trying to out-do each other. “You didn’t shift, did you?”

“Chan-hyung can fix it if you did,” Changbin added.

“I didn’t!” Hyunjin said defensively. “People were just asking a lot of questions. It was kind of exhausting to be honest,” he admitted.

Jisung hummed sympathetically and Jeongin slowed his pace now they were further from the gates and let go of Changbin’s arm.

“Someone started a rumour he’s third in line for the throne,” Jeongin offered.

“What?” Hyunjin asked. “What throne?”

“The Republic of Korea,” Jeongin said dryly. “I’ve been getting questions about it all day.”

“But I said I was an orphan?” Hyunjin said, puzzled.

“Adds to the mystery,” Jeongin replied. “According to half the student body you're the illegitimate son of the heir with a mistress in the U.S. and you only moved to Korea when your mum died and your father, the heir, took custody of you. We’re a cover family to protect your real identity and Channie-hyung is actually a trained assassin.”

“I mean… he might be,” Jisung said, skipping up to walk beside them. “He’s never really explained what he did before he adopted me.”

“ _That’s_ what you focused on?” Changbin asked.

“Well, Prince is kind of the opposite of Sewer Baby so I guess that’s a good thing?” Hyunjin said with a little shrug. He had no idea what he was getting into with the ruthless children on Seoul’s elite. How they even got to ‘Prince’ in the first place, Jeongin had no idea. Unless...

“What did you tell them?” Jeongin turned to ask Hyunjin suspiciously.

“Nothing!” Hyunjin laughed, holding up his hands. “I used our story. Promise.”

“ _My_ story,” Jisung said.

“It was a team effort!” Hyunjin retorted.

“So, how was your day, Innie?” Changbin asked, slinging a friendly arm across Jeongin’s shoulders as the other two continued to bicker. “Besides the unwanted rise in popularity.”

“Yedam is in my class again this year,” Jeongin offered pretty much the only highlight of his day. “That was good.” Yedam was the only other mystic kid in Jeongin’s year that Jeongin was aware of. The siren boy had known the hyungs before Jeongin did and they were pretty close because of it.

“Yedammie!” Changbin cooed happily. “Invite him round. I’ve not seen him in ages.”

“No.” Jeongin shrugged Changbin’s arm off. He complained about being the maknae but he didn’t actually want a younger kid hanging around for them all to favouritise. “Yedam is my friend now. Find someone else.” He turned sharply and darted down the stairs to the subway before Changbin could latch on again.

“But you stole Hyunjinnie too!” Changbin’s wail echoed in the tunnel. “You’ve left me with only Jisungie! This isn’t fair!”

***

Jeongin was much happier and stress-free by the time they got home- Hyunjin, Jisung and Changbin in combination were just too chaotically funny to stay in a bad mood around. Jisung was even wearing Jeongin’s blazer and school bag because he ‘wanted to know what it was like to live in a cartoon’. He’d also acted out a series of dramatic scenes on the way home for their amusement- leaning sadly against the subway window, pining over Changbin from afar, challenging Hyunjin to a fight… The ‘fight’ had been a competition to see who could stand on the toes of their shoes the longest (made harder by the jolting movement of the subway carriage) and somehow holding a stupid pose while doing it was key in obtaining victory. Neither won and they had ended up with them nearly missing their stop because Changbin was laughing too hard to stand up which was honestly a great improvement as far as Hyunjin-Jisung fights went. Changbin was still giggling over the memory of it when they got to the shop but his laughter quickly died.

“What happened?” Jisung asked, pushing past Jeongin to get to Chan who was pacing _very quickly_ back and forth. Jeongin had never seen him this nervous before. He didn’t think Chan _got_ nervous.

“Please stay calm,” Chan said quickly, skidding to a halt and holding out his hands warily towards Jisung.

“Doesn’t work when you tell him that,” Hyunjin piped up unhelpfully.

“It doesn’t,” Jisung agreed. “Seriously, Hyung. You have to tell me or I’ll panic anyway.”

Chan closed his eyes for a moment and Jeongin could see him already regretting the fallout of his next words. “I have to adopt another kid.”

“Another one!” Jisung exclaimed. “But you _just_ got Hyunjin and you _said_ you’d talk to us first.” Surprisingly, Jisung seemed stable despite his outburst. Jeongin still took his school bag and blazer back as covertly as he could.

“I know, I know!” Chan replied, his eyebrows drawn in sympathy. “It’s not my choice though. The Council is kind of forcing me to take him since I’ve got school-age kids already and I owe them.”

“Say no!” Jisung said, swinging his arms in wide gestures as he made his point. There was no fire, yet. “Say ‘I have four kids already and two just got out of hospital. I can’t handle another one.’”

“You can’t say no, can you?” Changbin guessed. He’d turned the shop sign to closed and moved Jisung towards the table and away from the delicate display cases.

“Not really,” Chan whispered to the floor. “If I have a witch kid they want I have to take the fae kid they don’t want.”

“And if you don’t take the fae kid they don’t want they’ll take the witch kid you do have,” Hyunjin finished quietly, taking Jisung’s hand.

“See! I told you they were dicks!” Jeongin said, feeling vindicated. Here was direct proof that the council didn’t give a shit about certain species. He _knew_ he’d been right to keep Hyunjin away from them.

Hyunjin put a finger to his lips and shot a glance over to Jisung. He’d been here a lot less time than Jeongin but already he could read Jisung’s mood better than him. Jeongin couldn’t tell for sure when Jisung’s emotions were going to get too extreme but he supposed that Hyunjin had a lot more experience seeing the tipping point to recognise it. He shut his mouth but raised his eyebrows at Hyunjin to convey that his point was still important. Hyunjin gave the slightest nod of acceptance and that was all Jeongin needed to feel like he’d done a good job.

“So what’s wrong with the new kid then?” Jisung asked eventually.

“Nothing,” Chan said.

“Nothing?” Jeongin asked sceptically. The whole reason any of them were with Chan in the first place was that they needed to be rescued from their situation in some way. It was Chan’s MO to take in lost children.

“Nothing,” Chan repeated. “He’s just a Fae boy that wants to go to human school.”

“Why does everyone want to go to school?” Jisung interrupted.

“ _You_ want to go to school too,” Changbin pointed out and Jisung swung a fist loosely at him for that revelation.

“Shut up.” He turned back to Chan. “So when is he coming, this mystery boy? Does he have a name?”

“Tomorrow Fae Time,” Chan said with a sigh. “So, depending on the skin, any time between right now and Christmas. And no, he doesn’t have a name yet.”

“Brilliant,” Jisung said with a resigned sigh. He was getting faster at accepting people. That, or he didn’t want to go back to hospital again after only a week of junk food. “I hate him already.” Or maybe not. “I’m going to my room,” he announced, already heading for the stairs. “Only Binne-hyung is allowed in.”

“Well, that went better than expected,” Chan said lightly. He smiled apologetically at the rest of them. “I’m sorry about this. Really. It’s out of my hands.”

Changbin patted Chan on the shoulder as he went after Jisung, ever the peace-keeper. “I’m sure it will go better this time.”

Jeongin fucking hoped so. He wasn’t sure it could really go much worse.

Hyunjin opened his mouth, frowned, closed it again, opened it again, still frowning, and closed it.

“Sorry,” Chan said again. “We didn’t tell you about the Fae, did we?”

“Not really,” Hyunjin answered. “What’s Fae Time?”

What a question to start with. It looked like Hyunjin’s education for the day was far from over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's how Hyunjin joined them. It might seem like a weird place to stop but i think its done. This story was about acceptance- acceptance into a family and into two very different societies. Hyunjin faced a lot of struggles but hes standing on his own two feet now and is facing his future head-on so his origin has come to an end. I hope you enjoyed it!!


End file.
